Category Archives: Corona Virus

Tottenham have confirmed that two unnamed players who tested positive for coronavirus on their return from international duty returned false positive results.

Both players were shown to have contracted Covid-19 but have since been retested, as per standard procedure, and will now not be required to isolate for 10 days.

The pair are now available for Sunday's Premier League match at Newcastle, live on Sky Sports, and will also not be sidelined for the Europa Conference League match against Vitesse Arnhem on Thursday and the London derby at West Ham next weekend.

A club statement released 90 minutes before kick-off against Newcastle read: "Following a number of reports regarding the health of our players, the club would like to provide clarity to events of the past 48 hours.

"After further analysis following Premier League protocol, two players - whose names will not be disclosed due to medical confidentiality - returned false positive tests for COVID-19 on Friday after returning from international duty."

Speaking to Sky Sports, head coach Nuno Espirito Santo also did not want to confirm the identity of the pair, saying it was "private", but acknowledged it had not been the ideal build-up.

The Portuguese, who named an unchanged line-up, said: "It causes some problems in the preparation for the game but we have to manage and try to adapt and we did, so we are ready to play."

In his press conference on Friday afternoon, Spurs boss Nuno admitted that he has been left with "huge issues" following the latest international break.

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Spurs, who beat Aston Villa 2-1 before the international break, sit 10th in the Premier League table, with 12 points from their opening seven games.

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Coronavirus: Two Tottenham first-team players confirmed to be false positives - Sky Sports

Its not a coincidence that Merck has experience from H.I.V. internally, with their leadership and culture, they know that if they dont address the access challenges, they will be slammed, said Dr. Moon, co-director of the Global Health Centre at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva.

Generic manufacturing is not in itself a guarantee of global access. Half of all the coronavirus infections reported in low- and middle-income nations in the first six months of 2021 occurred in 32 countries excluded from the Merck license. Brazil, Malaysia, Mexico and Peru are not included. Nor are China and Russia.

Generic production licenses for restricted territories can leave middle-income countries that have frail public health systems paying prices nearly as high as rich ones. Merck says it will use World Bank income data from these countries to calculate what it charges for the drug in each.

Merck is also in negotiations with the Medicines Patent Pool, a United Nations-backed nonprofit that works to make medical treatment and technologies accessible. Charles Gore, director of the organization, said he hopes Merck will agree to a licensing agreement that could permit companies in an even wider range of places to make the drug, while Merck sells its own product in rich nations. Such a deal, he said, would set an important precedent for other companies.

If Merck, or Pfizer or other drug makers do not ensure widespread availability of Covid treatments, they could face widespread use of compulsory licensing, in which governments override intellectual property restrictions to allow manufacture of medications, often in emergency situations. While Merck will earn a royalty on the drugs sold by the generic makers, and likely also on any deals reached through the patent pool, under compulsory licensing the company has no say in the price of the drug or the amount of the royalty.

Unitaid, the Geneva-based global health agency, said $3.5 billion in new funding from rich nations was needed to make therapeutics accessible, the bulk of it for antivirals in low-income countries.

We need a global effort. We need donors to step up with funds to make sure treatments reach everyone, Janet Ginnard, the director of strategy, said.

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Will New Covid Treatments Be as Elusive for Poor Countries as Vaccines? - The New York Times

A leading Israeli health official has cautioned his country against any further easing of coronavirus rules and said he fears a potential fifth wave of Covid-19 could hit the nation.

Prof Salman Zarka said there were lessons to be learnt from lifting rules too soon. Israel reported 734 new cases on Saturday, in a country of 9.4 million down from 11,000 a day during a surge last month.

We are optimistic and we see the downward trend is continuing but the fourth wave is still here, he told Kan public radio on Sunday.

We also have a lesson to learn, to remind everyone we exited too quickly from the third wave.

We thought we beat the coronavirus and then the Delta variant came in the fourth wave. We need to do it slowly, carefully, keeping in mind a potential fifth wave, God forbid

Prof Salman Zarka

"We thought we beat the coronavirus and then the Delta variant came in the fourth wave.

We need to do it slowly, carefully, keeping in mind [a potential] fifth wave, God forbid.

Israel has battled surges in daily cases throughout much of the summer, despite having one of the world's highest vaccination rates.

Prof Salman Zarka says Israel has learnt lessons from dropping mask wearing and other rules too early. Photo: Ziv Medical Centre

The government dropped most coronavirus rules, including the mandatory wearing of masks, in April as the Delta variant hit the region then was forced to reintroduce masks in June.

The Times of Israel reported that the Cabinet is expected to ease remaining restrictions in the coming days, including abolishing rules limiting large outdoor gatherings to between 1,000 and 5,000 participants, and limits on event halls of 400 people in closed spaces and 500 in open spaces, once the average daily new case rate drops to fewer than 1,000.

Prof Zarka, as the Israeli government's chief Covid-19 officer, co-ordinates national efforts to tackle the pandemic and advises ministers on the most appropriate response.

He previously said he expected that by late 2021 or early 2022, Israel would be giving shots specially adapted to cope better with variants. He last month gave a warning of how under strain hospitals were.

The story of this outbreak is the story of those who choose to not be vaccinated, Prof Zarka said.

The drop to less than 1,000 cases per day is a significant improvement on August and September. In the first week of September, Israel had about 1,100 people in hospital in almost 700 considered "seriously ill".

Israel has administered at least 15,700,000 doses of coronavirus vaccines so far, and nearly 40 per cent of its population have had a booster shot, Reuters reported this month.

Updated: October 17th 2021, 6:06 PM

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Israel's coronavirus tsar warns against easing rules and fears fifth wave - The National

Confirmed cases of COVID-19 have passed 239.6 million globally, according to Johns Hopkins University. The number of confirmed deaths stands at more than 4.88 million. More than 6.6 billion vaccination doses have been administered globally, according to Our World in Data.

Sydney will allow in fully vaccinated travellers from overseas from 1 November - without needing to quarantine. The rule change would initially only benefit citizens.

France has donated more than half a million doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to Nigeria through the COVAX vaccine-sharing facility.

The EU's drug regulator has started a real-time review of AstraZeneca's antibody-based COVID-19 therapy.

Latvia has cancelled most planned hospital operations from Monday to free up beds and staff as COVID-19 cases increase.

UK Health Minister Sajid Javid said yesterday that the COVID-19 situation is 'quite stable at this point'. 42,776 new COVID-19 cases were reported on Wednesday - the highest figure since mid-July.

A panel of expert advisors to the US Food and Drug Administration has voted to recommend booster shots of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine for certain groups.

Poland is donating a million AstraZeneca COVID-19 shots to Iran, the Polish embassy in Tehran said yesterday.

Hungary has reported 1,141 new confirmed daily COVID-19 cases, the first time the number has risen above 1,000 during the pandemic's fourth wave in the country.

Daily new confirmed COVID-19 cases per million people in selected countries.

Image: Our World in Data

US President Joe Biden told the visiting Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta yesterday that the United States is set to make a one-time donation of more than 17 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine to the African Union.

Biden said the 17 million doses will be in addition to 50 million the United States has already donated to the African Union.

The African Union, which has 55 member states and a combined population of over 1.3 billion people, has accused vaccine manufacturers of not giving its members fair access. Of 5.7 billion doses of coronavirus vaccines administered around the world by mid-September, only 2% had been in Africa.

The 17 million doses of J&J are available immediately and will be delivered to the African Union in the coming weeks, the White House said.

Each of our Top 50 social enterprise last mile responders and multi-stakeholder initiatives is working across four priority areas of need: Prevention and protection; COVID-19 treatment and relief; inclusive vaccine access; and securing livelihoods. The list was curated jointly with regional hosts Catalyst 2030s NASE and Aavishkaar Group. Their profiles can be found on http://www.wef.ch/lastmiletop50india.

Top Last Mile Partnership Initiatives to collaborate with:

The tiny Pacific Island nation of Palau has the world's highest vaccination rate, the Red Cross said yesterday.

99% of the country's population over 12 has had both shots of a vaccine against COVID-19, the International Federation of Red Cross (IFRC) said, citing government figures which also show that this amounts to 16,152 people.

That puts Palau, an archipelago of 500 islands in the western Pacific Ocean, in the "top spot", the IFRC said in a statement. Other nations in the region continue to lag behind though. Less than 10% of the Solomon Islands (population 650,000) and Kiribati (population 119,000) are vaccinated, the IFRC said.

Written by

Joe Myers, Writer, Formative Content

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

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COVID-19: What you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic on 15 October - World Economic Forum

By: KDKA-TV News Staff

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) A recent study has ranked Pennsylvania in the top 20 safest states to be in during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The study, conducted by Wallethub, ranked Pennsylvania 19th out of 50 states and Washington D.C.

It also said that West Virginia tied with Idaho for having the worst COVID-19 death rate.

The study said it based its rankings of the states on COVID-19 transmission rates, the number of positive COVID-19 tests, hospitalizations and deaths related to the virus, and the number of eligible people who have been vaccinated against COVID-19.

The study was released on Thursday.

On Friday, the Pennsylvania Department of Health said that 1,502,124 total cases and 30,418 total deaths have been recorded since the start of the pandemic, and over 70% of the states population 18 and older are fully vaccinated.

Wallethub said the safest state was Connecticut and the least safest was Idaho, with West Virginia being ranked second-to-last overall.

The results of this study by Wallethub were a stark contrast from one released earlier in the year, which put Pennsylvania at a 34th ranking.

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Study Ranks Pennsylvania In The Top 20 Safest States During The Coronavirus Pandemic - CBS Pittsburgh

RICHMOND, Va. -- The health department reported 14,779 more people tested positive for COVID-19 out of the +238,872 total tests processed over the past week. That brings Virginia's total number of coronavirus cases to 902,938.

As of Friday's update, 37,767 (+503 from the Friday before) people had been hospitalized and 13,391 (+316) people had died as a result of COVID-19-related illnesses, according to updated Virginia Department of Health (VDH) data.

RELATED: 14,700+ new cases reported this week; 62% of Virginians now fully vaccinated

Scroll down for complete city/county-by-county breakdown of COVID-19 cases in Virginia

These localities saw the biggest jumps (100 or more) in COVID-19 cases last week (Oct. 9-15):

Central Virginia

Chesterfield 38,728 ( +551 )Henrico 33,701 ( +394 )Richmond City 23,458 ( +246 )Hanover 11,479 ( +192 )

Hampton Roads

Virginia Beach 48,959 ( +480 )Chesapeake 28,299 ( +364 )Norfolk 23,974 ( +279 )Newport News 20,193 ( +270 )Hampton 14,750 ( +156 )Portsmouth 12,376 ( +142 )Suffolk 10,700 ( +157 )James City 6,859 ( +125 )

Northern Virginia

Fairfax 90,382 ( +778 )Prince William 54,059 ( +544 )Loudoun 33,536 ( +304 )Spotsylvania 14,577 ( +263 )Stafford 15,574 ( +194 )Arlington 18,265 ( +175 )Alexandria 14,019 ( +145 )

Additional Localities:

Roanoke County 11,520 ( +253 )Frederick 11,285 ( +207 )Rockingham 9,147 ( +188 )Waynesboro 3,551 ( +183 )Roanoke City 11,795 ( +174 )Shenandoah 6,184 ( +154 )Pittsylvania 7,884 ( +152 )Bedford 9,670 ( +151 )Washington 7,355 ( +138 )Lynchburg 11,594 ( +135 )Wise 5,047 ( +132 )Smyth 4,678 ( +154 )Fauquier 6,776 ( +118 )Carroll 3,795 ( +103 )Albemarle 7,834 ( +102 )Scott 2,991 ( +101 )Warren 4,807 ( +101 )

City/County-by-County Breakdown of Cases (Oct. 9-15)

Accomack 3,970 ( +65 )Albemarle 7,834 ( +102 )Alexandria 14,019 ( +145 )Alleghany 2,058 ( +39 )Amelia 1,372 ( +36 )Amherst 4,252 ( +63 )Appomattox 2,335 ( +30 )Arlington 18,265 ( +175 )Augusta 9,884 ( +26 )

Bath 452 ( +16 )Bedford 9,670 ( +151 )Bland 1,045 ( +6 )Botetourt 3,703 ( +91 )Bristol 2,222 ( +24 )Brunswick 1,765 ( +20 )Buchanan 2,309 ( +67 )Buckingham 2,604 ( +25 )Buena Vista City 1,261 ( +43 )

Campbell 6,967 ( +89 )Caroline 3,776 ( +55 )Carroll 3,795 ( +103 )Charles City 670 ( +15 )Charlotte 1,239 ( +25 )Charlottesville 5,248 ( +50 )Chesapeake 28,299 ( +364 )Chesterfield 38,728 ( +551 )Clarke 1,319 ( +18 )Colonial Heights 2,548 ( +43 )Covington 741 ( +5 )Craig 527 ( +19 )Culpeper 6,296 ( +81 )Cumberland 702 ( +11 )

Danville 6,121 ( +91 )Dickenson 1,568 ( +40 )Dinwiddie 3,054 ( +48 )

Emporia 863 ( +7 )Essex 1,211 ( +34 )

Fairfax 90,382 ( +778 )Fairfax City 643 ( +5 )Falls Church 540 ( +11 )Fauquier 6,776 ( +118 )Floyd 1,368 ( +23 )Fluvanna 2,542 ( +28 )Franklin City 1,593 ( +20 )Franklin County 5,840 ( +96 )Frederick 11,285 ( +207 )Fredericksburg 3,007 ( +43 )

Galax 1,487 ( +32 )Giles 2,187 ( +48 )Gloucester 3,781 ( +45 )Goochland 1,955 ( +35 )Grayson 2,014 ( +40 )Greene 2,163 ( +47 )Greensville 1,861 ( +18 )

Halifax 3,786 ( +93 )Hampton 14,750 ( +156 )Hanover 11,479 ( +192 )Harrisonburg 8,128 ( +85 )Henrico 33,701 ( +394 )Henry 6,248 ( +96 )Highland 168 ( +3 )Hopewell 3,632 ( +35 )

Isle of Wight 4,350 ( +66 )

James City 6,859 ( +125 )

King and Queen 607 ( +14 )King George 2,533 ( +50 )King William 1,857 ( +35 )

Lancaster 1,046 ( +6 )Lee 3,605 ( +59 )Lexington 1,540 ( +16 )Loudoun 33,536 ( +304 )Louisa 3,098 ( +64 )Lunenburg 1,051 ( +17 )Lynchburg 11,594 ( +135 )

Madison 960 ( +18 )Manassas City 5,018 ( +57 )Manassas Park 1,264 ( +2 )Martinsville 1,989 ( +34 )Mathews 874 ( +8 )Mecklenburg 3,320 ( +53 )Middlesex 931 ( +16 )Montgomery 11,577 ( +97 )

Nelson 1,304 ( +25 )New Kent 2,310 ( +86 )Newport News 20,193 ( +270 )Norfolk 23,974 ( +279 )Northampton 1,135 ( +19 )Northumberland 1,182 ( +31 )Norton 544 ( +13 )Nottoway 2,544 ( +32 )

Orange 3,563 ( +68 )

Page 3,263 ( +51 )Patrick 1,967 ( +27 )Petersburg 5,158 ( +25 )Pittsylvania 7,884 ( +152 )Poquoson 1,308 ( +30 )Portsmouth 12,376 ( +142 )Powhatan 2,734 ( +43 )Prince Edward 2,886 ( +46 )Prince George 4,858 ( +62 )Prince William 54,059 ( +544 )Pulaski 3,980 ( +96 )

Radford 2,856 ( +24 )Rappahannock 559 ( +17 )Richmond City 23,458 ( +246 )Richmond County 1,707 ( +22 )Roanoke City 11,795 ( +174 )Roanoke County 11,520 ( +253 )Rockbridge 2,042 ( +27 )Rockingham 9,147 ( +188 )Russell 3,655 ( +82 )

Salem 3,340 ( +94 )Scott 2,991 ( +101 )Shenandoah 6,184 ( +154 )Smyth 4,678 ( +154 )Southampton 2,360 ( +23 )Spotsylvania 14,577 ( +263 )Stafford 15,574 ( +194 )Staunton 3,322 ( +32 )Suffolk 10,700 ( +157 )Surry 595 ( +15 )Sussex 1,536 ( +19 )

Tazewell 5,551 ( +78 )

Virginia Beach 48,959 ( +480 )

Warren 4,807 ( +101 )Washington 7,355 ( +138 )Waynesboro 3,551 ( +183 )Westmoreland 1,780 ( +51 )Williamsburg 1,125 ( +19 )Winchester 3,656 ( +14 )Wise 5,047 ( +132 )Wythe 4,347 ( +77 )

York 5,325 ( +97 )

VDH

Who's getting sick

The coronavirus first most impacted people aged 50 to 69, which currently accounts for 23.1% of cases in Virginia.

However, people in their 20s now account for 18.9% of cases in the state.

Additionally, people aged 30 to 49 are 30.9% of cases, data show.

And stats show children and teens account for 18.7% of cases.

More women have been infected by the virus at 466,153 cases versus the 430,169 cases reported in men. No gender was reported for 6,616 cases in the Commonwealth.

WTVR

Virginians age 12+ are eligible for COVID-19 vaccine. Pre-registration is no longer required, so go to Vaccine Finder to search for specific vaccines available near you or call 877-VAX-IN-VA (877-275-8343).

Have You Been Fully Vaccinated?

People are considered fully vaccinated:

Virginia Department of Health

How to Protect Yourself and Others When Youve Been Fully Vaccinated

COVID-19 vaccines are effective at protecting you from getting sick. Based on what we know about COVID-19 vaccines, people who have been fully vaccinated can start to do some things that they had stopped doing because of the pandemic.

Were still learning how vaccines will affect the spread of COVID-19. After youve been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, you should keep taking precautionslike wearing a mask, staying 6 feet apart from others, and avoiding crowds and poorly ventilated spacesin public places until we know more.

These recommendations can help you make decisions about daily activities after you are fully vaccinated.

They are not intended for healthcare settings.Click here for more information from the Virginia Department of Health.

Depend on CBS 6 News and WTVR.com for the most complete coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read more from the original source:

County-by-county look at COVID-19 cases in Virginia; which areas saw biggest spikes this week - wtvr.com

Twomore Mainers have died as health officials on Saturday reported another 542coronavirus cases across the state.

Saturdays report brings the total number of coronavirus cases in Maine to 97,725,according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Thats up from 97,183 on Friday.

Of those, 69,647have been confirmed positive, while 28,078were classified as probable cases, the Maine CDC reported.

Two men in their 80s from Penobscot County have succumbed to the virus, bringing the statewide death toll to 1,095.

The number of coronavirus cases diagnosed in the past 14 days statewide is 6,257. This is an estimation of the current number of active cases in the state, as the Maine CDC is no longer tracking recoveries for all patients. Thats down from 6,456 on Friday.

The new case rate statewide Saturday was 4.05 cases per 10,000 residents, and the total case rate statewide was 730.16.

Maines seven-day average for new coronavirus cases is 402.6, down from 411.6 the day before, down from 498.9 a week ago and down from 455.6 a month ago. That average peaked on Jan. 14 at 625.3.

The most cases have been detected in Mainers younger than 20, while Mainers over 80 years old make up the majority of deaths. More cases have been recorded in women and more deaths in men.

So far, 2,653 Mainers have been hospitalized at some point with COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus. Of those, 169 are currently hospitalized, with 60 in critical care and 31 on a ventilator. Overall, 43 out of 340 critical care beds and 200 out of 305 ventilators are available.

The total statewide hospitalization rate on Saturday was 19.82 patients per 10,000 residents.

Cases have been reported in Androscoggin (10,339), Aroostook (3,653), Cumberland (21,238), Franklin (2,114), Hancock (2,591), Kennebec (9,299), Knox (1,833), Lincoln (1,719), Oxford (4,815), Penobscot (11,665), Piscataquis (1,260), Sagadahoc (1,889), Somerset (4,015), Waldo (2,275), Washington (1,702) and York (17,310) counties. Information about where an additional eight cases were reported wasnt immediately available.

An additional 2,077 vaccine doses were administered in the previous 24 hours. As of Saturday, 892,826 Mainers are fully vaccinated, or about 75.4 percent of eligible Mainers, according to the Maine CDC.

New Hampshire reported 626 new cases on Saturday and four deaths. Vermont reported 227 new cases and one death, while Massachusetts reported 1,649 new cases and 12 deaths.

As of Saturday afternoon, the coronavirus had sickened 44,903,846 people in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands, as well as caused 724,105 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.

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2 more Mainers have died and another 542 coronavirus cases reported across the state - Bangor Daily News

The Franklin County commissioners have already committed millions of dollars in federal coronavirus-related relief forjob training, rental assistance and other initiatives aimed at helping residents, businesses and nonprofit groups recover from the ongoing pandemic.

And theyre eyeing tens of millions of dollars in additional assistance for affordable housing, broadband expansion and other programs to ensure Franklin County is best positioned for a rebound once COVID-19 is a distant memory.

This is a once-in-a-generation type of an opportunity, said Commissioner John OGrady, one of the three elected members of the county board of commissioners, which ultimately approves the disbursements. Its not every day you get these kinds of dollars to make a difference and make an influence in your community. We want to make sure were doing it right.

Franklin County will receive nearly $256million through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, the federal coronavirus-relief legislation enacted earlier this year by Democrats without the support of any Republican U.S. Senator or U.S. House members.

Details about local spending are available on a new county website (https://commissioners.franklincountyohio.gov/arp), which includes a running list of allocations approvedby the commissioners.

Franklin County is receiving its total Rescue Plan allocation in two disbursements of about $128 million each. Of the initial amount, the commissioners have allocated more than $76 million, with another $51 million-plus remaining.

Of thattotal, the federal legislation anticipates the county willneed about $50 million for revenue losses expected because of the ongoing pandemic to help cover general county expenses. Those funds have not been formally allocated yet, just set aside in the countys books in anticipation of infrastructure and other costs.

Otherwise, the commissioners have signed off on about $25 million in other federal COVID relief money spendingthrough 20 different resolutions adopted at their regular weekly sessions. Among the notable expenditures:

$7 million to the Mid-Ohio Food Collective, to be used for a new 19,000-square-foot addition to its Grove City warehouse, expanding the type and quantities of food distributed to residents in need.

$5 million for area nonprofit groups, with grants to be awarded up to $50,000 and targeted, in part, to those groups providing services in qualified census tracts, meeting lower household income requirements.

$3 million in tourism, travel and hospitality aid to Huntington Park and the Columbus Clippers, the Triple-A minor league baseball affiliate of the Cleveland Indians. The Clippers are a nonprofit entity owned by the county.

$2.5 million for a new Women Back to Work program, including job training and other support and services to help women who are out of work, many because of the ongoing pandemic.

Nearly $2.4 million to the Columbus Urban Leagueto support workforce programs, helping out-of-work residents complete training and land full-time jobs.

Nearly $1.3 million to the Franklin County Convention Facilities Authority for safety and health improvements at Nationwide Arena and the Greater Columbus Convention Centerto prevent the spread of coronavirus and other airborne diseases.

All of the allocations require detailed reporting to the U.S. Department of the Treasury to ensure the funds are being spent appropriately. County Administrator Kenneth Wilson said the county also is closely tracking whether the funds are having the desired outcome in the community.

We want to know what your results are, because this is a generational amount of federal dollars going into the economies across the nation, Wilsonsaid. In the end, we want to be identified as one of the local governments that made the most-effective use of (federal COVID relief funds)by being innovative and also being accountable in benefitting the community in both the short- and long-term.

In July, the commissioners hosted a public hearing and accepted written and other comments from residents about how the federal funds should be spent.

What havent I heard? OGrady said about ideas that have been provided to date. Everybody has their thoughts … everybodys in need …. Weve been listening to everybody, working with everybody.

Commissioner Kevin Boyce said there have been a lot of good ideas, but county officials are working to ensure the federal funds are used as intended, to assist in rebounding from the coronavirus pandemic.

Were thinking of projects and ways to use those resources that are directly related to the pandemic, from job creation to initiatives that allow people access to training and other resources, he said.

Commissioner Erica Crawley said she wants to make sure that some of the federal funding helps address health-equity issues, including ensuring all residents have access to coronavirus testing and vaccinations and safe places to quarantine if exposed to the virus, and making sure we have transportation available to get them to the doctors or get them tovaccinations.

OGradys priorities include outlays for expansions of affordable housing and broadband access throughout the county.

On housing, the commissioners have allocated federal coronavirus relief for rental assistance, and theyre planning to commit Rescue Plan Act funding for the construction of new affordable housing units.

How much were going to do? Were still working on that number, but it will be significant, OGrady said.

He separately added that, Peoples lives have been turned upside down, not just because of COVID and the impact of the disease, but its also had a major financial impact on peoples lives. Affordable housing is a gigantic need in this community, and its become an ever-growing need because of the financial impact that (COVID-19) had on peoples lives.

Deputy County Administrator Erik Janas said planned allocations willbolster the countys magnet fund, an affordable housing initiative unveiled in 2019 that helps to leverage tax credits and make new construction projects more feasible. The federal funding could help fund the construction of hundreds of additional housing units, plus support housing repair programs and other assistance efforts, he said.

We know that housing was already tight and housing was already expensive before the pandemic, said Tyler Lowry, the commissioners spokesman. Its only gotten worse since then. You cant help people recover if they dont have a place to live that is safe and secure and close to resources, close to jobs and close to good schools.

O'Grady said the pandemic also spotlighted digital inequities residents in parts of the county dont enjoy the same online access as others.

The need has always been there, he said. Theres parts of this community where there are kids who were sent home with Chromebooks that had no ability to be able to access because they didnt have Wi-Fiat home. … Where are they going to do their homework and have the ability to be able to access the internet?

Ultimately, all of the federal funding has to go to efforts to address the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Boyce regularly questions recipients of funds on whether they have plans for covering costs of the efforts when pandemic relief is exhausted.

Those funds can help infuse some new initiatives and maybe spur some ideas, maybe even leverage those resources for other funding from the private sector or other layers of government, Boyce said. But, for now, we have to be thoughtful about our future, too, and make sure if we use those funds that the expectation isnt that were going to be funding from the general fund in the future.

Crawley agreed, saying that it is important in allocating federal COVID relief funds the commissioners "arent setting up organizations to implement new programs that they wont be able to sustain later on. We do not want to put organizations in a situation where we are helping to fund something that the county commissioners will be on the hook for later."

mkovac@dispatch.com

@OhioCapitalBlog

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Franklin County says jobs, housing, broadband among priorities for $256M in COVID relief - The Columbus Dispatch

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), speaks during a news conference on the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak in Geneva, in March 2020. Stefan Wermuth/Bloomberg via Getty Images hide caption

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), speaks during a news conference on the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak in Geneva, in March 2020.

The World Health Organization has announced the establishment of a scientific advisory group aimed at identifying the origin of COVID-19 and to better prepare for future outbreaks of other deadly pathogens.

The WHO's Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins on Novel Pathogens, or SAGO, will include scientists from the U.S., China and about two dozen other countries. It will be charged with answering the question of how the novel coronavirus first infected humans a mystery that continues to elude experts more than 18 months into the crisis. The group will also be responsible for establishing a framework to combat future pandemics

Maria Van Kerkhove, the head of WHO's emerging disease unit, called the establishment of the new group "a real opportunity right now to get rid of all the noise, all the politics surrounding this and focus on what we know, what we don't know."

The team will be selected from more than 700 applications from experts in fields including epidemiology, animal health, ecology, clinical medicine, virology, genomics, molecular epidemiology, molecular biology, biology, food safety, biosafety, biosecurity and public health, the WHO said in a statement.

"The emergence of new viruses with the potential to spark epidemics and pandemics is a fact of nature, and while SARS-CoV-2 is the latest such virus, it will not be the last," WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. "Understanding where new pathogens come from is essential for preventing future outbreaks with epidemic and pandemic potential, and requires a broad range of expertise."

The establishment of the group comes as China has continued to resist efforts to study the possible origin of the virus there. After an initial investigation by the WHO, Beijing rejected a plan for a second phase of the probe in July that might delve into various hypotheses about the origin of the virus, including that it escaped from a Chinese government lab in the city of Wuhan.

The so-called "lab-leak theory" was initially dismissed by WHO, but has nonetheless gained traction in recent months, fueled in part by Beijing's secrecy. Many scientists contend that a lab leak is much less likely than the alternative that the novel coronavirus has a natural origin.

Beijing did not immediately react to the announcement of the new task force.

Despite the WHO's initial findings, Tedros has called for audits of Wuhan laboratories, including the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which some scientists believe may be the source of the virus that caused the first infections in China.

Some of the proposed SAGO members were on the original 10-person WHO team that studied possible origins in China, including Chinese scientist Yungui Yang of the Beijing Institute of Genomics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

An editorial co-authored by Tedros that was published in Science on Wednesday said SAGO would "quickly assess the status of SARS-CoV-2 origin studies and advise WHO on what is known, the outstanding gaps, and next steps."

It said that "[all] hypotheses must continue to be examined," including the "studies of wildlife sold in markets in and around Wuhan, China (where cases of COVID-19 were first reported in December 2019); studies of SARS-like coronaviruses circulating in bats in China and Southeast Asia; studies on prepandemic biological sampling around the world; and other animal susceptibility studies."

"As well, laboratory hypotheses must be examined carefully, with a focus on labs in the location where the first reports of human infections emerged in Wuhan," it said, adding, "A lab accident cannot be ruled out until there is sufficient evidence to do so and those results are openly shared."

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WHO launches a new group to study the origins of the coronavirus - NPR

As the virus spread, more mutations sprang up, giving rise to even more transmissible variants. First came Alpha, which was about 50 percent more infectious than the original virus, and soon Delta, which was, in turn, roughly 50 percent more infectious than Alpha.

Now were basically in a Delta pandemic, said Robert Garry, a virologist at Tulane University. So another surge, another spread of a slightly better variant.

Although some experts were surprised to see the hyperinfectious variant, which has more than a dozen notable mutations, emerge so quickly, the appearance of more transmissible variants is textbook viral evolution.

Its hard to imagine that the virus is going to pop into a new species perfectly formed for that species, said Andrew Read, an evolutionary microbiologist at Penn State University. Its bound to do some adaptation.

But scientists dont expect this process to continue forever.

There are likely to be some basic biological limits on just how infectious a particular virus can become, based on its intrinsic properties. Viruses that are well adapted to humans, such as measles and the seasonal influenza, are not constantly becoming more infectious, Dr. Bloom noted.

It is not entirely clear what the constraints on transmissibility are, he added, but at the very least, the new coronavirus cannot replicate infinitely fast or travel infinitely far.

Transmission requires one person to somehow exhale or cough or breathe out the virus, and it to land in someone elses airway and infect them, Dr. Bloom said. There are just limits to that process. Its never going to be the case that Im sitting here in my office, and Im giving it to someone on the other side of Seattle, right?

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What the Future May Hold for the Coronavirus and Us - The New York Times