Category Archives: Corona Virus

Facts not fear: We're tracking the latest numbers from the coronavirus pandemic in San Antonio and across Texas.

SAN ANTONIO We're tracking the latest numbers from the coronavirus pandemic in San Antonio and across Texas. Here are the latest numbers reported by Bexar and surrounding counties:

More county case information is available through theTexas Department of Health Services COVID-19 dashboard.

Stay updated with our latest information on coronavirus vaccines and local vaccine distribution with our ongoing Vaccine Tracker.

How Bexar County is trending

We've tracked how many coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Bexar County from the time officials began reporting cases in March 2020. The graphic below shows the number of cases since June and charts those daily case numbers along a 7-day moving average to provide a more accurate picture of the overall coronavirus case curve in our area and the direction we're trending amid the pandemic.

On Tuesday evening, Mayor Ron Nirenberg reported an additional 2,152 cases of the novel coronavirus in Bexar County, raising the case total to 124,800. Local officials said that number represents a high mark for newly-reported cases in the county and raised the seven-day rolling average to 1,457 newly reported cases per day.

Five additional deaths from COVID-19 complications were added to the county's death toll, which rose to 1,574 fatalities Tuesday.

Meanwhile, a record number of COVID-19 patients are currently hospitalized in Bexar County. Local hospitals reported 181 new admissions overnight, raising the number of patients currently hospitalized to 1,318. It's the first time that number has been above 1,300; the previous high watermark for local hospitalizations was 1,267 in July.

Of the 1,318 patients receiving treatment, 369 patients are in intensive care and 185 are on ventilators. Two patients from El Paso remain hospitalized in Bexar County.

Currently, 33.6% of all hospital patients in Bexar County have COVID-19. Earlier this week, city officials also reported that the local positivity rate has increased by four percentage points over the last week to 23.2%.

Coronavirus in Texas

The total number of novel coronavirus cases in the state since the pandemic began grew by 31,630 on Tuesday, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. That total includes 26,543 new confirmed cases, 3,637 new probable cases and 1,450 cases attributed to backlogs not previously reported in the state's total (more details can be found at the top of this page). Tuesday marks just the second time the state has reported more than 30,000 new COVID-19 cases.

As of Tuesday, more than 1.843 million Texans have been diagnosed with COVID-19.

State health authorities also reported 250 additional virus-related deaths on Tuesday. At least 28,219 Texans have died from COVID-19 complications.

Meanwhile, the number of Texans receiving treatment at hospitals for coronavirus symptoms on Tuesday to 13,308, marking another record high. Hospitalizations have risen by 45% since Dec. 1, a continuation of a fall/winter coronavirus surge that began in early October and continues to trend in the wrong direction.

The state estimates that about 1.488 million Texans have recovered, while 314,465 Texans remain ill with COVID-19.

The latest update from the Texas Education Agency showed that there have been at least 98,601 cumulative cases among staff and students across the state through Dec. 20. That number comprises 62,675 positive student cases and 35,926 staff cases. More information can be found here.

The TEA releases new data on school cases on Fridays.

Latest Coronavirus Headlines

Coronavirus symptoms

The symptoms of coronavirus can be similar to the flu or a bad cold. Symptoms include fever or chills, cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, fatigue, muscle or body aches, headache, new loss of taste or smell sore throat, congestion or runny nose, nausea or vomiting, and diarrhea, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Most healthy people will have mild symptoms. A study of more than 72,000 patients by the Centers for Disease Control in China showed 80 percent of the cases there were mild.

But infections can cause pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure, and even death, according to the World Health Organization. Older people with underlying health conditions are most at risk.

But infections can cause pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure, and even death, according to the World Health Organization. Older people with underlying health conditions are most at risk.

Experts determined there was consistent evidence these conditions increase a person's risk, regardless of age:

The CDC believes symptoms may appear anywhere from two to 14 days after being exposed.

Human coronaviruses are usually spread...

Help stop the spread of coronavirus

Find a Testing Location

City officials recommend getting a COVID-19 test if you experience fever or chills, cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, fatigue, muscle or body aches, headache, new loss of taste or smell, sore throat, congestion or runny nose, nausea or vomiting, or diarrhea.

San Antonio operates several no-cost testing locations, including two walk-up locations open Monday-Sunday from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m.:

Cuellar Community Center5626 San Fernando St.San Antonio, TX 78237

Ramirez Community Center1011 Gillette Blvd.San Antonio, TX 78224

Additionally, Freeman Coliseum offers drive-through no-cost testing from Monday through Sunday between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. An appointment is required and can be made either onlineor by calling (833) 213-0643.

Here's a Testing Sites Locatorto help you find the testing location closest to you in San Antonio. And here are the dates and times that city-run testing sites will be operating over the holidays.

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Coronavirus Tracker: Record number of patients hospitalized in Bexar County for COVID-19 treatment - KENS5.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Ohio Department of Health has reported nearly 1,000 coronavirus deaths to patients of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities over the last four weeks, including 203 reported Wednesday.

With the total now reaching 5,059 since the onset of coronavirus in Ohio about a year ago, the long-term care facilities account for 54% of all known COVID-19 deaths in the state.

The state health department in its weekly update for the facilities reported 3,785 current cases involving patients, and another 2,427 involving long-term care facility staff. Current cases are defined as those active during the seven-day period ending Tuesday.

The state began tracking nursing home cases by facility on April 15. There have been 39,667 patient cases and 27,529 staff cases since then.

The health department each Wednesday provides updates on deaths by county and cases by facility for the long-term care facilities. Facility-by-facility details can be found below.

This weeks report listed 4,690 deaths for cases since April 15. Separately, the department has said another 369 patient deaths pre-date the start of the more detailed tracking on April 15.

Among the deaths since April 15, with the most are Franklin (429), Cuyahoga (389), Summit (380), Lucas (249), Mahoning (206) and Stark (204).

Below is a list of case totals by facility. If you are having trouble viewing the list, use this link instead.

Rich Exner, data analysis editor for cleveland.com, writes about numbers on a variety of topics. Follow on Twitter @RichExner. See other data-related stories at cleveland.com/datacentral.

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Ohios coronavirus nursing home deaths top 5,000 with 203 added this week - cleveland.com

* More growth in view for one of few countries to expand in 2020

* Strict virus controls a boost for investment appeal vs peers

* Two free trade deals in 2020; manufacturers lured from China

* Vietnam funds cite ease in attracting foreign investment

HANOI, Jan 7 (Reuters) - Vietnams success in curbing the coronavirus so far, while its Southeast Asia neighbours struggle, is helping the country power ahead in economic growth and attracting funds, foreign investors, experts and analysts say.

Its strength in containing the pandemic saw it build on the foundations of two free trade agreements signed in 2020, also outpacing peers in luring manufacturers moving production out of China because of the Beijing-Washington trade war. Vietnam was one of the worlds few countries to record growth last year - well down on 2019, but still a 2.9% expansion.

Vietnam watchers expect the country to ride high as long as it keeps the virus - resurgent in many countries - at bay. Thanks to rigorously targeted testing, a centralised quarantine programme and early border closures, Vietnams coronavirus tally stands at just over 1,500 cases and 35 deaths to date - far fewer than any comparable country given its population of nearly 98 million.

The successful management of the pandemic to date has already enabled the country to capture a larger share of global trade and FDI (foreign direct investment) during 2020, said Carolyn Turk, the World Banks country director in Vietnam.

Parliament has set an economic growth target of 6% for this year, but Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, looking to extend his term or rise up the Communist Party of Vietnams ranks, said last month that Vietnam would target 6.5%.

At WHA Group, a Thai logistics firm which has expanded its industrial estate business in Vietnam, chairwoman Jareeporn Jarukornsakul said investors who had wanted to relocate operations to Thailand from China had not been able to do so because the coronavirus had spread in Thailand.

While infrastructure and regulatory issues are worse in Vietnam than in Thailand, she said, Costs are cheap in Vietnam and its government is very quick with investment, allowing provinces to issue their own regulations and investment incentives.

Still, there is much work to be done, even if the country does retain its prowess in handling the coronavirus: Vietnam suffers from a lack of highly-skilled labour, its dated bureaucracy is in need of digitisation and there is an over-reliance on polluting coal imports to fuel development.

But the cocktail of positives flowing through the economy currently has left foreign-invested asset managers in Vietnam able to raise significant amounts, for example, with some reporting oversubscribed funds.

On Monday, Ho Chi Minh City-based Mekong Capital said it had raised $246 million for its largest-ever fund - nearly 25% more than the original target of $200 million.

Dominic Scriven, chairman of Vietnamese asset manager Dragon Capital said a combination of the countrys trade deals, more cash in the economy and political stability had underpinned better-than-expected interest across three new funds launched by his firm.

We were very pleasantly surprised by the market uptake, said Scriven.

That extra cash, along with savings accounts offering declining interest rates after three cuts in the central banks policy rate since March, has created a surge in local stock market investors.

The number of new investors has increased so much that the benchmark Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange has been forced to halt afternoon trading in order to process the surge.

Development was also boosted by the two free trade deals signed last year: the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the worlds largest trading block, and an agreement with Britain modelled on the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), which Vietnam ratified in June.

Hanoi also has bilateral trade deals with both South Korea and Japan, its largest sources of foreign direct investment, and is a signatory to the 11-country Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

The trade deal push has given it an advantage over some of its regional competitors. The EVFTA in particular has put Vietnam clearly on the map, said Sven Schneider, Chief Executive of the EU-Malaysian Chamber of Commerce.

Malaysia, on the other hand, is only waking up to this missed opportunity now, said Schneider.

WHA Groups Jareeporn also said the EVFTA had given Vietnam an advantage. If an industry needs cheap labour, its definitely going to Vietnam, Jareeporn said.

In the short term, Vietnam is well placed to pull ahead of its regional rivals in 2021, just as it holds a massive Communist Party meeting to select a new leadership later this month.

Its safe, the government functions smoothly, and in face of impediments like COVID the country rises to the challenge without hesitation and wins, Chad Ovel, partner at Mekong Capital, said.

Vietnam has clearly earned its position as the most attractive investment destination in Southeast Asia.

Reporting by James Pearson; Additional reporting by Phuong Nguyen and Khanh Vu in Hanoi, Liz Lee in Kuala Lumpur and Chayut Setboonsarng and Orathai Sriring in Bangkok; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell

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Keeping coronavirus at bay, Vietnam revs up economy to race ahead of rivals - Reuters

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U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands, has tested positive for the coronavirus, he said on Twitter on Tuesday evening.

Brady, a ranking member of the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee, said he will begin treatment Wednesday and should be fine. A spokesperson for Brady added Wednesday morning that the congressman has been practicing all guidelines laid out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention including social distancing and wearing a mask and received a test as soon as he was experiencing COVID-19 symptoms.

The Republican lawmaker said he received his first injection of the coronavirus vaccine Dec. 18 and is scheduled to receive his second dose later this week. While Brady tested negative for the respiratory disease on New Years Day, experts say it takes a few weeks for the body to build immunity after being vaccinated and that getting sick before completing a two-dose regimen should not undermine the potency of the vaccine.

He has full confidence in the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine, a Brady spokesperson said in an email.

Brady, 65, is receiving outpatient treatment at Walter Reed Medical Center. It is unclear how he contracted the virus.

Earlier this week, U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, R-Fort Worth, a high-ranking member of Texas congressional delegation, tested positive for the coronavirus. She previously said she was asymptomatic and feeling great, and planned to remain under the care of her doctor.

Multiple state leaders have tested positive for the virus since the pandemic began. The first statewide elected official to publicly confirm a positive coronavirus test was Texas Supreme Court Justice Debra Lehrmann in May. Other state lawmakers, including Rep. Tony Tinderholt, Sen. Kel Seliger and outgoing House Speaker Dennis Bonnen have tested positive. Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller also tested positive in early December.

Continued here:

Texas Congressman Kevin Brady says hes tested positive for COVID-19 - The Texas Tribune

Posted: Jan 6, 2021 / 02:07 PM EST / Updated: Jan 6, 2021 / 02:48 PM EST

RALEIGH, N.C. (FOX 46 CHARLOTTE) Gov. Roy Cooper and the Coronavirus Task Force will provide an update Wednesday afternoon on the states COVID-19 response as the next phase of vaccinations begin and as the states Modified Stay-at-Home order approaches its expiration date.

Tuesday, the governor announced that the N.C. National Guard would be helping with vaccine distribution as health officials admitted that the rollout is not going as expected.

Ensuring COVID-19 vaccines are administered quickly is our top priority right now, Cooper said. We will use all resources and personnel needed. Ive mobilized the NC National Guard to provide support to local health providers as we continue to increase the pace of vaccinations.

The announcement came as North Carolina begins to enter Phase 1B, making the vaccine available to people who are 75 years and older.

Governor Coopers Modified Stay-at-Home order is also set to expire at 5 p.m. Friday. Under the current order, restaurants must close at 10 p.m. and alcohol cannot be served past 9 p.m.

As of Wednesday, at least 582,348 cases and 7,076 deaths have been reported statewide. A record-high 3,893 patients are currently hospitalized.

The governors press conference is scheduled for 2 p.m. Wednesday. FOX 46 Charlotte will carry it live online and on air.

LATEST HEADLINES FROM FOX 46 CHARLOTTE

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Gov. Cooper, N.C. Coronavirus Task Force to provide update on COVID-19 as new vaccination phase begins - WSPA 7News

SPRING HILL Spring Hill resident Sharon Swanson has repeatedly called the Florida Department of Health in Hernando County to schedule an appointment for a COVID-19 vaccine. So far, she hasnt gotten through.

At 76, Swanson knows she is in a high-risk category for the disease, and she wants to be vaccinated as soon as possible.

But Swanson said she didnt expect that when the health department phone system buckled under the crush of calls, officials there would reach out to a gated community nearby, the Wellington at Seven Hills, to offer its residents hundreds of vaccine doses.

According to its website, the Wellington at Seven Hills is where discerning home buyers looking for the perfect 55 and up community can be pampered. It is home to Andrew Ingoglia, father of state Rep. Blaise Ingoglia, who previously headed up the Republican Party of Florida.

Health department officials explain their choice by saying they have an established relationship with the 1,100-home community. But, Swanson wondered, why should relationship count more than fairness?

Am I out of luck because I dont have connections to the health department? Swanson said.

When asked why the subdivision was chosen for the vaccines, Nina Mattei, the Florida Department of Health in Hernando Countys preparedness and emergency planner, said, Wellingtons management team and community emergency response team expressed an early willingness to support a point to dispense vaccinations.

We selected Wellington for their ability to help organize and run this vaccination outreach as well as having a large population of adults age 65 and over.

Paul Douglas also questions the choice. As president of the Hernando County chapter of the NAACP, he said Black ministers in South Brooksville have asked for a vaccine clinic in their area, but health officials said that wasnt how vaccines would be distributed, and that they were already depleted.

The way that they are approaching this is not surprising, Douglas said, noting that leaving out the concerns of minority residents is business as usual in Hernando County.

Hernando County commissioners have already begun to hear from constituents, asking why an affluent community like the Wellington should get to go first. But Commission Chairman John Allocco said he has explained the decision was not the countys to make, since the health department is a state agency.

I have no idea why they picked the Wellington, Allocco said. Hernando County had absolutely zero to do with which community this was given to.

County fire rescue workers will administer vaccines to the Wellington residents in the coming days, Allocco said. The commission approved offering that assistance, as well as future help with phone lines and appointments.

The Wellington at Seven Hills will receive 648 vaccine doses, out of the 2,000 the health department had initially received. The health department received another 800 doses this week, and additional doses will go to people by appointment.

Former Brooksville Mayor Joe Bernardini said he has been irked by the lack of vaccine planning at all levels of government. Its amazing to me that no one was prepared for it,' he said, adding, its amazing that a community can plan better than the health department.

Jay Wolfson, professor of public health for the University of South Florida, said he is not surprised at the uneven launch of vaccinations. Not only have health departments across the state seen diminishing resources, but COVID-19 has been an unpredictable enemy. The precautions needed to protect against it becoming a political bargaining chip havent helped matters, he said.

Were in this together, and it is a team sport even though were being told that were working against each other, Wolfson said. Covid is the enemy here, and to defeat it we have to use discipline, respect for one another and common sense.

HOW CORONAVIRUS IS SPREADING IN FLORIDA: Find the latest numbers for your county, city or zip code.

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In Hernando, a gated community gets some of the first coronavirus vaccine doses - Tampa Bay Times

Tommy John has had COVID-19 for at least three weeks, but the former pitching great disputes reports that he is a coronavirus denier.

"I'm not a denier. I've had it, baby,'' John said during a telephone interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The 77-year-old John remained hospitalized near his home in Indio, California. He said he started to feel ill following a trip to Nashville, Tennessee, before he was hospitalized on Dec. 13.

John said he has had a bout of pneumonia and did receive oxygen but is not presently on oxygen. He said the biggest side effect is he has no strength in his legs. As far as some of the other symptoms associated with COVID-19, such as loss of taste or smell, John said he hasn't experienced those.

"I feel good. The only thing right now is trying to arrange for someone to do physical therapy from my home,'' he said.

John pitched for six teams over a 26-year career from 1963 to 1989. He is widely known for undergoing the groundbreaking ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction surgery on his left elbow in 1974 that bears his name. He went on to win 20 games three times, once with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1977 and twice with the New York Yankees (1979-80).

While John is not denying the coronavirus, his son has been more outspoken. Tommy John III, a chiropractor who lives in San Diego, has taken to social media, saying that "this was never a pandemic.''

Continued here:

Former pitching great Tommy John hospitalized with COVID-19 - ESPN

The US surpassed 80,000 daily hospitalizations on November 19 and set new records steadily for 17 days straight until Friday, according to the COVID Tracking Project. Then on Saturday, the number reached 91,635.The spread of coronavirus has been climbing at concerning rates leading up to and just following the Thanksgiving holiday and could soon be getting worse due to holiday travel, experts say. As of Saturday, more than 13.2 million people have been infected by the virus and at least 266,047 people have died, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

More than 4 million of the total cases of the pandemic have been reported in the month of November (about 30%), and more than 100,000 cases have been recorded every day for the last 26 consecutive days, JHU said.

Despite calls from officials and health experts to stay home, there was still an uptick in in travel the week of Thanksgiving. With weather getting colder and more people gathering indoors, experts have cautioned that the already climbing number of cases could get worse in the coming weeks.

"If anything, we are rounding the corner into a calamity," said Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency medicine physician and a visiting professor at George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health. "We're soon going to exceed well more than 2,000 deaths, maybe 3,000, 4,000 deaths every single day here in the US."

Los Angeles County under a 'concerning' spike

In Los Angeles County alone, at least 1,951 people were hospitalized on Saturday as health officials watch concerning increases in coronavirus metrics.

"The last time the county saw numbers this high at our hospitals was in August," Dr. Barbara Ferrer, Los Angeles County Public Health director, said Saturday.

The county saw "a small increase in deaths earlier this week," said Ferrer, but that increase is still concerning and highlights the importance of following stay-home orders.

"Even if you're not feeling sick, the simple act of gathering with people outside your household puts everyone at risk," according to Ferrer. "No amount of inspections or fines will replace individual compliance, people staying home, not gathering, wearing a face covering properly, and distancing," Ferrer emphasized.

"I understand everyone's frustration. We're headed into the holiday season and more than anything, we're all longing to spend time with our friends and family," she said.

And the number of cases is rising for healthcare workers -- particularly nurses in the area, Ferrer said.

When there is a surge, and there's more community transmission, healthcare workers have "double jeopardy," said Ferrer. "They have more jeopardy out in the community, and there are more patients at their jobs, and so they're treating many more people."

With the county at about 75% capacity for hospital beds already, residents disregarding precautions over holiday weekends could lead to "a surge on top of a surge," Ferrer said.

Strategizing how to get a vaccine to the public

While the best defense against the virus' spread is still following preventative measures, researchers and officials are working to get a vaccine out to the public.

Meanwhile, the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has called an emergency meeting for Tuesday, where members will vote on which groups of people should get a Covid-19 vaccine first, once one is authorized.

"It is a significant advancement in the development and progression towards having a vaccine available," Rick Bright, a member of President-elect Joe Biden's coronavirus advisory board, said Friday.

The committee usually meets after a vaccine is authorized to make recommendations.

Fellow board member Dr. Celine Gounder told CNN that vaccinations may begin before 2021, which is in line with projections made by other health experts.

"People who are doing things that we really can't function without" should be some of the first to get vaccinated, Gounder said.

"Doctors, nurses who are caring for patients in the hospital, including patients with coronavirus, should very much be among those first receiving the vaccine," Gounder told CNN's Boris Sanchez on Saturday. "Beyond that, there are other frontline workers, essential workers, whether that's the people who are working in food and meat processing, people who are at the grocery store checkout counter."

People at higher risk of severe illness from coronavirus should also be considered for early vaccination, she said.

And while most adults will have access to vaccinations by next year, children may have to wait much longer, according to Dr. Esther Choo, professor of emergency medicine at Oregon Health & Science University.

"That's kind of a phase three thing most likely because children, for the most part, have been doing well in this pandemic," Choo told CNN's Amara Walker on Saturday. "They are on the list but we're going to try to focus on older folks and those with multiple comorbidities first."

CNN's Christina Maxouris, Melissa Alonso, Alta Spells, Chuck Johnston, Amanda Watts and Leanna Faulk contributed to this report.

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More than 91,000 people -- the most of the pandemic -- are hospitalized with coronavirus in the US - CNN

By MARKIAN HAWRYLUK, The Associated Press

BOULDER, Colo. Brady Bowman, a 19-year-old student at the University of Colorado-Boulder, and two friends strolled down 11th Street, all sporting matching neck gaiters branded with the Thomas English Muffins logo. He had received an entire box of the promotional gaiters.

He thinks they are just more comfortable to wear than a face mask. Especially a day like today, where its cold out, he said, with the top of his gaiter pulled down below his chin.

More stylish? Perhaps. More comfortable? Maybe. But as effective? Not necessarily, Kaiser Health News reports.

With states such as Colorado requiring face coverings indoors to prevent the spread of COVID-19, gaiters and bandannas have become popular accessories, particularly among college students and other young adults. Less restrictive than masks, they can easily be pulled up or down as needed and dont convey that just-out-of-the-hospital vibe.

But tests show those hipper face coverings are not as effective as surgical or cloth face masks. Bandannas, like plastic face shields, allow the virus to escape out the bottom in aerosolized particles that can hang in the air for hours. And gaiters are often made of such thin material that they dont trap as much virus as cloth masks.

As new COVID cases, hospitalizations and deaths surge upward heading into winter, many public health experts wonder whether its time to move beyond the anything-goes approach toward more standardization and higher-quality masks. President-elect Joe Biden reportedly is mulling a national face-covering mandate of some sort, which could not only increase mask-wearing but better define for Americans what sort of face covering would be most protective.

Unlike seat belts, condoms or other prevention strategies, we have not yet standardized what we are recommending for the public, said Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California-San Francisco. And that has been profoundly confusing for the American public, to have all these masks on the market.

Masks have been shown to reduce the spread of respiratory droplets that contain the coronavirus. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now says that masks not only help prevent people from infecting others but help protect the wearers from infection as well.

According to a recent analysis by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, implementing universal mask-wearing in late September would have saved nearly 130,000 American lives by the end of February.

Even so, many Americans still arent wearing masks. And in some states, they havent been required to do so.

At least 37 states and the District of Columbia have mandated face coverings but show wide variation in defining what qualifies. States such as Maryland and Rhode Island include bandannas or neck gaiters in their definitions, while South Carolina and Michigan do not, according to a KHN review of the orders. Some spell out the circumstances in which coverings must be worn or establish enforcement policies.

But according to Lawrence Gostin, a Georgetown University law professor, many states are not holding residents to those rules. Some state or local officials are choosing not to enforce them.

We have a patchwork of inconsistent rules and laws around the country, Gostin said. And when we are dealing with a nationwide pandemic, a patchwork just wont get the job done.

Cloth mask manufacturing was nearly nonexistent in the U.S. before the pandemic, so public health officials opted early in the year to stress the importance of wearing any face covering rather than trying to focus on one standard. As a result, Americans are wearing a hodgepodge of coverings, from home-sewn to commercial versions, with various levels of protection.

And what is worn matters. Dr. Iahn Gonsenhauser, an infectious disease specialist at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, said face coverings generally fall into three categories of effectiveness. N95 masks (not those with valves), surgical masks and well-made cloth masks (constructed of tightly woven material, folded over two or three times, and properly covering the mouth and nose) are in the highly effective category.

Bandannas, neck gaiters and face shields lie at the other end of the spectrum, and most everything else falls in the middle.

Bandannas are typically a thinner material, so if theyre not doubled or tripled up, that can allow respiratory droplets, in particular, to move through the masks, he said. But the fact that theyre open along the bottom of the mouth and neck, if theyre not tucked into a shirt or something like that, also allows for a lot of that exhalation droplet to escape around the mask and become airborne.

A plastic face shield can block larger droplets but wont stop aerosolized particles from flowing beyond its edges.

The evidence around neck gaiters has been mixed, in part because so many materials and designs are used. But recent testing suggests even the thin material commonly used to make gaiters is nearly as effective as a cloth mask if doubled over.

With few exceptions, the best mask is the mask that somebody is going to use regularly and consistently, Gonsenhauser said. It may be that the best technical mask is not going to be the mask that everybodys going to be willing to wear all the time.

Researchers at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health have found most of the commercially produced cloth masks block 40% to 60% of droplets, approaching the effectiveness of surgical masks.

You cant possibly test everything, but certainly one take-home message is that anything is better than nothing, said William Lindsley, a NIOSH biomedical engineer. We havent tested anything that has not worked.

But Gandhi believes its time to raise the standards for masks, ramp up the production of disposable surgical masks and encourage, if not order, Americans to wear them. Early in the pandemic, the Trump administration reportedly considered sending masks to every American but ultimately decided against it.

Taiwan, on the other hand, invested in manufacturing and distributing surgical masks, and it has one of the lowest COVID death counts in the world: fewer than 10 deaths in a country of 24 million people.

It makes more sense to standardize masks, to mass-produce surgical masks, which are not very expensive, Gandhi said. Were spending a lot more on everything else.

She said surgical masks might even reduce the severity of COVID-19. Gandhi and several colleagues recently wrote in a medical journal article that evidence suggests the less virus a person is exposed to, the less sick they become.

Thats been backed up in tests with lab animals exposed to the coronavirus and with humans exposed to other, less dangerous respiratory viruses.

Other evidence also supports that theory. While the CDC estimates about 40% of COVID cases are asymptomatic, outbreaks in food processing plants where workers were handed surgical or N95 masks as they entered showed a much higher proportion of infected workers never developed symptoms. That could explain why many Asian countries, where mask-wearing has been a cultural norm for decades, have been able to reopen their economies without seeing death rates as high as in the United States.

Tokyo is a good example. Its wide open, the people are walking around shoulder to shoulder, people are going to offices, people are going to school, Gandhi said. But theyre all masked and they have very low rates of severe illness.

If shes right, a national mandate calling for surgical masks could both reduce transmission and prevent serious disease.

We cant wait, Gandhi said. Weve had enough deaths from this infection. Our case fatality rates in a country of this degree of development are just tragic.

It remains to be seen whether Americans will be more willing to wear dowdier, less comfortable but more effective masks to protect themselves and others. When Bowman, the Boulder college student, was asked if he was worried that his gaiter might not block as much of the virus as a face mask, he seemed unconcerned.

As long as the other person is wearing a mask, he said.

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Mask-wearing coronavirus mandates leave protection gaps - The Denver Post

Heres what you need to know:A hospital in Pipestone, Minn., last week.Credit...Erinn Springer for The New York Times

The total number of coronavirus cases in the United States for November surpassed four million on Saturday, more than double the record set in October of 1.9 million cases. And the sharp escalation is likely to continue or grow even steeper.

We are on track to continue this accelerated pace of the epidemic and see even more speed of rise of cases because of the movement indoors, of activities around the country and because large numbers of people have moved around the country for the holidays, said Tom Inglesby, the director of the Center for Health Security at Johns Hopkins University.

The milestone came as Americans traveled by the millions for the long Thanksgiving weekend and amid a Black Friday that saw some store crowding, even as merchants guided customers to online sales and limit in-person shopping. In the end, retail trackers reported

More than 170,000 people in the United States are now testing positive on an average day. More than 1.1 million people tested positive in the past week alone. The countrys overall total, from the start of the pandemic, is over 13 million infections by far the worlds largest outbreak.

The Thanksgiving holiday, however, caused skews in reporting at the end of the week, with a steep drop-off in new cases reported on Thursday, and then a huge jump on Friday. Many states did not report data on the Thanksgiving holiday, when the national tally rose more than 103,000 cases and more than 1,100 deaths far lower levels than on the previous Thursday, Nov. 19, when 187,000 cases and 1,962 deaths were recorded.

For that very reason, the numbers were artificially high on Friday, when many states reported two days worth of data. That pushed the country past 200,000 cases in a single day for the first time, with more than 205,000 reported as of late Friday night, along with more than 1,400 deaths. The preceding Friday, Nov. 20, the reports were more than 198,600 infections and more than 1,950 deaths.

The blurry data could persist. Access to testing around the country was likely to have decreased for a few days, meaning more infections could go uncounted. In Louisiana, testing sites run by the National Guard were slated to be closed both Thursday and Friday. In Wisconsin, some National Guard testing sites closed all week.

Many hospitals across the country are already overcrowded and struggling to keep up with rising numbers of patients seeking care, and the pressure on the health care system is likely to only increase. Hospitalizations on Saturday reached a daily record of 91,635, according to the Covid Tracking Project.

The countrys monthly case numbers have varied considerably, but have exploded over the past two months. Officials announced more than 188,000 cases for the month of March, followed by a significantly higher 887,000 cases for April. From there, the monthly total dropped to more than 723,500 for May, and then, after the Memorial Day holiday, rose to more than 854,000 for June. That skyrocketed to more than 1,918,000 for July, dropped to more than 1,473,000 for August and more than 1,216,000 for September, and then shot back up past 1,946,000 for October.

The number for this month, as of midday Saturday, was 4,006,548, with more than two days left for the tally to grow.

Monthly deaths have been rising more slowly, but they are already higher than at any point since the spring surge, when New York, New Jersey and Louisiana became global hot spots.

News of the likely approval of at least one vaccine in mid-December has raised hopes that the virus can be slowed, but until a significant proportion of the population can be vaccinated, experts say, people need to act responsibly. And, they say, officials should add or create rules that discourage indoor and group gatherings.

There has to be a combination of individual members of the public making different decisions and policymakers restricting the activities or settings with highest transmission risk, like restaurants and bars where people are sitting close for prolonged periods without masks, said Dr. Inglesby.

On April 15, 2,752 people across the United States were reported to have died from Covid-19, more than on any day before or since.

Now daily deaths are rising sharply and fast approaching that dreadful count again. On Wednesday, 2,300 deaths were reported nationwide the highest toll since May.

The pandemic has now claimed more than 264,800 lives in the country. But how the virus kills has changed in profound ways. Months of suffering have provided a horrific but valuable education: Doctors and nurses know better how to treat patients who contract the virus and how to prevent severe cases from ending in fatality, and a far smaller proportion of people who catch the virus are dying from it than were in the spring.

Yet the sheer breadth of the current outbreak means that the cost in lives lost every day is still climbing.

And unlike during the peak of the spring wave in April, when the deaths were concentrated in a handful of states like New York, New Jersey and Louisiana, now they are scattered widely across the entire nation. There is hardly a community that has not been affected.

Twenty-five states set weekly death records in November, and Thanksgiving gatherings and the start of the holiday shopping season may cause infections to spread still more widely in the coming days.

We are at risk of repeating what happened in April, Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota and a member of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.s coronavirus task force, said of the death toll. I shudder to imagine what things might be like in two weeks.

Once you go over the case cliff, where you have so many cases that you overwhelm the system, basically at that point when you fall off that case cliff, youre going to see mortality rates go up substantially, he said.

Texas and Illinois have reported more than 800 deaths over the past week, while Pennsylvania, Michigan, California and Florida added more than 400 each. In the Upper Midwest, where reports of new cases have started to level off, deaths are still mounting. Nearly 40 percent of all coronavirus deaths in Wisconsin have been reported since the start of November. In North Dakota, where military nurses have been deployed in hospitals, more than 1 out of every 1,000 residents has now died.

Around the country, medical examiners and funeral home directors are grappling with a steady rise in the toll. On a recent night, Dale Clock, who along with his wife owns and operates two funeral homes in western Michigan, handled four Covid-19 deaths in just 12 hours, he said. In the past two weeks, nearly half of the families they serve lost relatives to the virus.

The blows came in quick succession when the Kansas City Fire Department lost two longtime firefighters to Covid-19 last weekend, one of them a captain, as the coronavirus continued to rage across much of the Midwest.

More than 200 members of the department have tested positive since the pandemic began, and at least 70 of those have active infections now, according to Fire Chief Donna Lake. The two over the weekend were the second and third to die of the disease; the first was an emergency medic in the spring.

It affects morale in a big way, Chief Lake said of the losses.

The International Association of Fire Fighters, which represents more than 320,000 professional firefighters across the United States, said that more than 3,400 members have had the virus nationwide, and 22 have died. There have been many more cases among the nations roughly 750,000 volunteer firefighters.

When we think of firefighters, the first thing we think of is fire trucks, said Doug Stern, a spokesman for the union. But in the overwhelming majority of America, firefighters are also paramedics. Theyre also E.M.T.s. Theyre the first link in the public health chain. They really are health workers, much like doctors and nurses.

Firefighters are often working in uncontrolled environments, he said, dealing with emergencies in houses, buildings or vehicles where surfaces may not have been disinfected, and encountering people who may not be wearing masks or taking other protective measures.

To mitigate those risks, the Kansas City Fire Department has changed its protocols, and now initially sends in a single person in full protective gear to assess some emergency situations, instead of a whole group going in right away.

But the department has also had to send exposed workers back to the front lines, Chief Lake said, because lengthy quarantines were leaving the department critically short of personnel.

The two who died over last weekend were Capt. Robert Rocha, 60, a 29-year veteran of the department, and Scott Davidson, 45, a communications specialist and paramedic. Both were remembered as vital figures in the community.

Captain Rocha was a very gregarious, larger-than-life kind of guy who mentored younger firefighters, Chief Lake said. She recalled Mr. Davidson as a family man who brought a valuable frontline perspective from his paramedic service to his more recent job in communications.

The department deems death from Covid-19 to be in the line of duty, and firefighters across the country are known for turning out to ceremonially honor fallen colleagues. But the pandemic necessarily constrained the send-offs in Kansas City, with attendance limits at services and social distance between members of the department who stood at curbside to salute a procession for Mr. Davidson.

A drive-through visitation for Captain Rocha will be held on Sunday, and his funeral service will be closed to the public in person but streamed online.

Sarah Fuller became the first woman to play during a regular-season game in one of college footballs Power 5 conferences by booting a kickoff on Saturday for Vanderbilt to start the second half against Missouri.

Fuller, a senior and the starting goalkeeper for Vanderbilts womens soccer team, was tapped this week after every member of the Commodores kicking squad was forced to stop practicing because at least one came into contact with someone who tested positive for the coronavirus.

Fuller wore the No. 32 the number she wears on her soccer jersey and a helmet with the phrase Play Like a Girl.

Lets make history, she posted on Twitter on Friday night.

Last Sunday, Fuller helped Vanderbilt clinch its first Southeastern Conference womens soccer title since 1994 with a 3-1 victory over Arkansas. She was planning on heading home to Wylie, Texas, for Thanksgiving when her soccer coach called her about kicking this weekend, she told the school. Her parents watched from the stands as her kickoff traveled to the Missouri 35-yard line.

I was just really calm, she said. The SEC championship was more stressful.

She added: Honestly its just so exciting that I could represent for all the little girls out there that they can play football or any sport, really.

Football players and other athletes offered Fuller words of encouragement posted to social media, including Billie Jean King, Dak Prescott and Nick Folk, a New England Patriots kicker.

Vanderbilt was blown out by Missouri, 41-0, and Fuller did not have an opportunity to attempt a field goal. Vanderbilt is 0-8 this season.

Fullers hasty addition to the team was one example of many of how much the surging virus has affected college football. The Commodores were originally supposed to play the University of Tennessee, but that game was postponed to accommodate several postponements elsewhere in the SEC as teams struggle to contain the virus. Other conferences, like the Big Ten and Mountain West, have canceled games amid outbreaks, while the Ivy League have halted fall and winter sports altogether.

The British police arrested over 150 people on Saturday while trying to shut down anti-lockdown protests in central London, as tensions escalated over Englands lockdown.

The Metropolitan Police said the arrests were for breaking coronavirus regulations, assaulting a police officer and various drug offenses.

The lockdown in England, which bars mass gatherings, is scheduled to end on Dec. 2, when some rules will be relaxed.

Police officers lined up along several streets in central Londons West End shopping district and confronted protesters in St. Jamess Park, near Westminster, the Reuters news agency reported. The anti-lockdown protesters were joined by groups demonstrating against vaccines.

Protesters marched along Oxford and Regent streets, ignoring requests to disperse, and scuffled with the police as bottles and smoke bombs were thrown, The Associated Press reported.

Though the current lockdown is ending next week, a new set of rules announced on Thursday will divide England into three tiers of restrictions. That means access to bars and restaurants will differ drastically from place to place depending on the governments assessment of the local threat posed by the virus, and the more than 23 million people who live in the most restricted tier still face a ban on one of the nations favored activities: a visit to the pub.

Even in the worst-hit parts of England, shops, gyms and hair salons are being allowed to reopen, and religious services, weddings and outdoor sports to restart. Retailers will have a chance to open during the lucrative Christmas shopping season.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson also announced plans to relax rules on social mixing to allow up to three households to gather together Dec. 22-27 to celebrate Christmas, but health experts warn this is likely to cause a spike in infections.

Opinion polls generally show that Britons support tough measures and prefer to prioritize health over the economy.

Amazon has embarked on an extraordinary hiring binge this year, vacuuming up an average of 1,400 new workers a day and solidifying its power as online shopping becomes more entrenched during the coronavirus pandemic.

The spree has accelerated since the onset of the pandemic, which has turbocharged Amazons business and made it a winner of the crisis. Starting in July, the company brought on about 350,000 employees, or 2,800 a day. Most have been warehouse workers, but Amazon has also hired software engineers and hardware specialists to power enterprises such as cloud computing, streaming entertainment and devices, which have boomed in the pandemic.

The scale of hiring is even larger than it may seem because the numbers do not account for employee churn, nor do they include the 100,000 temporary workers who have been recruited for the holiday shopping season. They also do not include what internal documents show as roughly 500,000 delivery drivers, who are contractors and not direct Amazon employees.

The new hires have increased Amazons global work force to more than 1.2 million employees.

Amazons rapid employee growth is unrivaled in the history of corporate America. It far outstrips the 230,000 employees that Walmart, the largest private employer with more than 2.2 million workers, added in a single year two decades ago. The closest comparisons are the hiring that entire industries carried out in wartime, such as shipbuilding during the early years of World War II or home building after service members returned, economists and corporate historians said.

The company has also almost tripled the number of U.S. warehouses used for last-mile deliveries this year, said Marc Wulfraat, founder of the logistics consulting firm MWPVL International, who tracks Amazons operations. The delivery drivers are usually contractors, so Amazon does not disclose their numbers in regulatory filings.

They have built their own UPS in the last several years, Mr. Wulfraat said. This pace of change has never been seen before.

Two and a half months into the school year, Massachusetts compiled its data and found sobering results: Enrollment in public schools was down 37,000, or almost 4 percent, from last year, a startling drop for a system that has mostly held steady.

Though no nationwide data is available, similar snapshots are emerging all over the country. Enrollment in New York City public schools is down 31,000 students, or 3.2 percent, according to preliminary data obtained by Chalkbeat.

Officials in Montana reported a drop of 2 percent. Wisconsin and Missouri have reported declines of 3 percent. North Carolina has reported a drop of 4 percent.

The reason is no mystery. With public schools mostly shifting to remote or hybrid learning, parents are pulling their children out entirely, opting to keep them at home or looking for options that offer more in-person instruction.

In some cases, the charter schools are taking them, in some cases privates and parochials, said Glenn Koocher, who heads the Massachusetts Association of School Committees. The bigger tragedy is that some kids arent getting anything, because theyve fallen off the map.

Mr. Koocher said he believes a third of the students that left public schools this year are in that category. The districts have lost touch with them, he said. Theyre staying home, probably doing nothing, and were out of touch with them.

A reverse phenomenon has taken place at private schools, many of which began the school year with in-person learning. In New England, 36 percent of independent schools reported a rise in enrollment in September compared with last year, according to the National Association of Independent Schools.

The National Association of Independent Schools said in August that 58 percent of its schools had reported an increase in interest from the previous summer.

In some areas, like the tristate region outside New York City, private schools have had a surge of affluent parents intent on getting their children into in-person classes for the fall. That option wasnt possible at many public schools and in big cities hit hard in the pandemic.

Applications are up, and enrollment is up, Carole J. Everett, executive director of the New Jersey Association of Independent Schools, told The Times last month. This is largely due to people fleeing the city and public school parents disappointed that their schools havent opened in person. It really picked up over the summer and has continued into the fall.

Some unenrolled students may return to the public school system next year, when in-person teaching resumes, Mr. Kooker said. But if they dont, school budgets are likely to suffer, because state aid to schools is distributed on a per-pupil basis. That matters more in poorer neighborhoods, since wealthy school districts augment state funding using local property taxes.

You still have to have the teachers, he said. You dont lose money in school expenses, but you lose state aid.

New York City deputy sheriffs shut down what they described as an illegal nightclub early Saturday morning in the Garment District, where nearly 400 people were partying inside. Four people were charged with various offenses including violation of city and state coronavirus emergency orders.

Deputies responded at 2:45 a.m. to a complaint of an illegal party at a commercial space on West 36th Street and found at least 393 people inside as well as a large quantity of alcohol, according to the Sheriffs Office. Photographs posted to the sheriffs Twitter account show dozens of confiscated bottles of liquor, including Johnnie Walker Blue, the brands most expensive label.

In a statement, Joseph Fucito, the New York City sheriff, said those inside the club were not social distancing and were not wearing proper face covering in addition to not adhering to city and state emergency orders related to Covid-19.

Liquor was present and sold at the location, and the location does not have a liquor license, Sheriff Fucito said, adding that the partygoers did not have a necessary special permit from the New York State Liquor Authority.

Since Nov. 13, bars and restaurants in New York have not been allowed to stay open later than 10 p.m. for indoor patrons or to serve alcohol to go afterward.

According to the authorities, three of the four men who threw the party were issued tickets to appear in court and then released; a fourth was arrested because of an outstanding warrant and was released from custody as of Saturday night; and none of the partygoers were cited.

Because of coronavirus restrictions in Italy, thousands of people have not been able to visit loved ones in hospitals, regardless of their ailment.

That didnt stop Stefano Bozzini.

Earlier this month, Mr. Bozzini, 81, plunked himself in the courtyard of a hospital in Castel San Giovanni, a town in the central region of Reggio Emilia, and began playing his accordion under the second-story window of his wife of 47 years, Carla Sacchi, who was hospitalized for an illness unrelated to Covid-19. He played a few of her favorite songs, including Spanish Eyes, the 1965 Bert Kaempfert classic made popular by the crooners Al Martino, Engelbert Humperdinck and Elvis Presley.

The couples son, Maurizio Bozzini, recorded the serenade and sent it to a friend who posted it on Facebook. Local and international media picked up the video, a soulful testament of profound love.

Mrs. Sacchi died at home on Thursday at 74, and was buried on Saturday.

We all recognized love, in the simplicity and immediacy of its universal language, wrote Patrizia Barbieri, the mayor of the nearby town of Piacenza, on her Facebook page on Thursday. She thanked Mr. Bozzini for a tender gesture that reminded us what truly caring for each other means. To do everything so that the other person does not feel alone, overcoming any barrier.

In the video, Mr. Bozzini is wearing the distinctive hat of the Alpini, the Italian armys mountain infantry, and he often provided entertainment to local Alpini gatherings as well as nursing homes. Alessandro Stragliati, the group leader for the local branch of the Alpini said that Mr. Bozzini had brought his wife with him as she became ill, to distract her.

After she died, Stefano told me, I have lost my Stella Alpina, a term of endearment as well as the Italian name for the edelweiss flower, Mr. Stragliati said, adding, He is a humble and simple man, but he has touched the heart of millions.

Coronavirus cases are surging in South Africas impoverished Eastern Cape and in the neighboring Western Cape, a province whose fabled wine routes and beaches usually draw millions of local and international visitors around this time of year.

Premier Alan Winde issued a hot spot alert on Thursday for the metropolitan area that includes Cape Town, the Western Capes capital. Cases in the province increased by 52 percent over the last week, reaching 126,362 on Wednesday, according to government figures.

Wastewater treatment testing showed that cases were rising in all districts, Mr. Winde said in a news conference. Some areas now have more active cases than during previous spikes in May and June, he added. Along with some of South Africas wealthiest neighborhoods, the province is also home to some of its largest and poorest townships.

Also on Thursday, Zweli Mkhize, the health minister, said that about half of South Africas new daily cases were coming from the Eastern Cape, a largely rural province that has been the hardest-hit region in the country.

Officials throughout South Africa have warned that the coming holiday season, when many citizens travel to their villages or to holiday homes, could lead to more cases with devastating economic consequences.

We also cannot afford a lockdown again, as is being witnessed in many European countries right now, Mr. Winde said. Our economy simply cannot afford it.

Sub-Saharan Africas most developed economy has recorded more than 781,900 cases and more than 21,370 deaths, according to a New York Times database. New daily cases had dropped from around 12,000 new daily cases in June to less than 2,000 per day, but a slow uptick in recent weeks has pushed numbers to around 3,000 a day.

Still, on Nov. 15 South Africa lifted all international travel restrictions ahead of what would normally be its peak tourist season, when as many as 10 million foreigners head to the countrys pristine beaches and game safaris.

Nearly a year into a pandemic that has ravaged the global economy like no time since the Great Depression, the only clear pathway toward improved fortunes is containing the virus itself.

With the United States suffering its most rampant transmission yet, and with major nations in Europe again under lockdown, prospects remain grim for a meaningful worldwide recovery before the middle of next year, and far longer in some economies.

What has been challenged is the popular notion that the world economy could simply endure a deep freeze to contain the pandemic and then revive. The idea was that public largess could support workers and keep businesses alive during the short, sharp downturn required to choke off the virus, before commercial life recovered.

This sort of thinking was the basis for forecasts of a so-called V-shaped recovery: The astonishing collapse of major economies in the first half of the year was supposed to be followed by an equally astonishing revival.

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The U.S. Passes 4 Million Cases in November Alone, Doubling Octobers Tally - The New York Times