Category Archives: Corona Virus

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The cuts come next.

The latest news from the Texas comptroller that the state will have $11.6 billion less to spend in its current budget than lawmakers expected leads straight to a conversation about which programs and services in the state budget are expendable.

That conversation is already underway. The timing is tricky. A lot of the lawmakers wholl make those budget decisions are campaigning for reelection in November. The Legislature will be in session in January just six months from now to revise the current budget and write the next one.

And the budgeteers are working without all of the information theyd like to have.

Despite their efforts, the states forecasting flashlights dont shine very far into the darkness. Comptroller Glenn Hegar, revenue estimator Tom Currah and their crew have the sales, franchise, oil and gas, and other tax results from the last quarter to guide them, but everything else is guesswork. When will the states businesses be fully open and operating? When will the oil and gas industry rebound? How is anyone supposed to know when the pandemic will be effectively controlled? When will schools open, and does that mean parents can return to work?

The Texas economy is never easy to predict. Its worse now.

Hegar built that into his latest projections. Its important to note that this revised estimate carries unprecedented uncertainty, he said in the cover letter to state leaders.

Thats a comptrollers way of saying, Hey, there are so many things we dont know, and these numbers might be crazy. Good luck out there!

Lawmakers knew they were going to be in a financial bind as soon as businesses started closing in the spring. Before most economists were willing to do so, Hegar said the states economy was in a recession. He told lawmakers to expect a midsummer revision to the fiscal forecast with billions cut from his earlier projection. State leaders asked agencies to detail 5% proposed cuts in spending.

The comptrollers new numbers include new estimates of how much money will be available in a state savings account known as the rainy day fund. Its lower than before, at $8.8 billion, but thats enough to cover his newly projected shortfall ($4.6 billion) if lawmakers want to hit that account instead of making cuts. Theyll have to find a way to cover large expected deficits in their Medicaid budget, but they might also be getting more relief/response money from the federal government.

The current budget isnt really the problem.

What comes after the current budget is the hard part. In January, lawmakers will write the 2022-23 budget. Theyll have a little more information about the pandemic, a little more information about the state of the economy, and a great deal of uncertainty about how much money will roll into the state treasury, and when.

Republicans in control of state government for most of the last two decades have written the last nine state budgets. The programs that might be on the block this time have their support. And its safe to say the Democrats dreaming of winning a majority in the Texas House arent eager to cut services, either.

But if the past is the guide, legislators are likely to cut spending. The last big dip in state finance came after the global financial crisis in 2008. Texas legislators put together a two-year budget in 2009 that had considerable support from federal stimulus funds. But the economic troubles lingered after the stimulus, and a projected shortfall of $27 billion in 2011 led to deep budget cuts notably including cuts to public education that affected Texas schools for years.

If big cuts are in order, education and health and human services are the biggest spending categories in the Texas budget.

Most other spending targets, however attractive, arent big enough to cover a hole of the size Hegar has described. And the two big ones are hard to hit.

The legislative session in 2019 might seem like ancient history, but that session was marked by a new state commitment to public school finance. Lawmakers said they would increase the states share of the cost of schools. They increased overall spending. And they did all of that in response to the 2018 elections, when voters focused on support for public education showed enough strength to win the attention of the Republicans in control of state government.

It would be politically risky to cut public education in the session after that, especially with the states top elected officials on their way to a 2022 election cycle. So is cutting funding in health and human services agencies especially the ones at the front of responses to the pandemic and the recession.

But it could happen. Theyll have to cut somewhere.

Disclosure: The Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

Continued here:

Coronavirus in Texas is hitting the state budget now - The Texas Tribune

As the U.S. deals with massive delays in COVID-19 testing, doctors and scientists say another type of diagnostic test could alleviate the stress on labs. Rapid, or point-of-care, tests deliver results in just minutes, while lab-based tools can take days.

"Every day they wait is another day they need to quarantine, or if they're not, it's another day they could be infecting other people," Dr. Keith Jerome, who directs the molecular virology lab at the University of Washington medical school, said in an interview. "If you're getting results within 20 minutes, you can start taking the appropriate actions right away."

The National Institutes of Health announced Wednesday what it called an "unprecedented effort" to ramp up testing technology. Funded by $1.5 billion in federal stimulus money, the program will focus on creating rapid tests and distributing them more widely.

It's also being called for by lawmakers and top federal health officials. President Donald Trump promised more rapid testing during his briefing Tuesday. And Dr. Brett Giroir, who is overseeing the nation's COVID-19 testing, said this month that he expected 5 million additional "point-of-care" tests in July, with a goal of 20 million or more by September.

The tests produce such quick results because samples aren't sent off to labs. Instead, they're inserted directly into a machine housed at a doctor's office or a hospital. The machine does the entire analysis, so instead of hours, it takes just minutes to get results similar to rapid flu or strep tests used by most doctors.

Six point-of-care tests are authorized by the Food and Drug Administration, including two antigen tests, which look for certain proteins in the virus rather than genetic material.

As promising as the rapid tests seem to be, a significant problem prevents more doctors and clinicians from using them. Most aren't as accurate as lab-based tests, and, in some cases, they can have shockingly high rates of false negatives.

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Joseph Petrosino, director of molecular virology and microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine, compares it to eating at a fast-food joint.

"If you go to a gourmet restaurant, you don't expect your meal to be ready in five minutes," he said. "But if you're on the go and you eat fast food, the quality of food is usually a sacrifice, compared to the gourmet restaurant. That's the same thing in the testing world."

One of the more popular rapid tests, Abbott Labs' ID NOW point-of-care test, which promises results in as little as five minutes and was once touted by the White House, came under fire in recent weeks after a small study found that it returned false negatives for nearly 50 percent of certain samples compared to a rival test. While other studies found more accurate results, it was enough for the FDA to issue an alert in May. The agency has received 147 adverse event reports about the test.

"The reality is that trying to do this really fast the combination of fast and sensitive turns out to be really a challenge," said Dr. Christopher Polage, director of the clinical microbiology laboratory at Duke University Health System.

Polage said COVID-19 testing is a lengthy process. In the lab, scientists use special reagents that amplify or copy a sample's genetic material to test for the virus. The process takes several hours. When you try to short-cut it for a rapid test, you can end up trading off the test's sensitivity.

"No patient is ever going to wait at a clinic for eight hours," Polage said. "So it's really difficult and, in some cases, impossible to get an equivalent result in a fraction of the time."

Jerome said, "You have to really keep in mind that there is a trade-off that you've made for that speed, and the trade-off is they're not as sensitive, which means they're going to miss some people who actually have COVID and tell them COVID isn't there."

A point-of-care test made by Cepheid Inc. of Sunnyvale, California, which gives results in about an hour, has been shown to be nearly as accurate as lab-based tests. But scientists say that the machine is expensive and that, as with some lab-based tests, some of the reagents it uses are in short supply.

"If you can wait an hour, you can get really good results," Jerome said. "The issue with those has been just shortages of reagents, and the machine itself is just not available enough that everybody can have one." He said UW Medicine, the health care system affiliated with the University of Washington, can use it only in the emergency room, where it needs to quickly test trauma patients so doctors and nurses know what kind of protective gear they need to wear.

But some doctors say that instead of focusing on rapid tests, which are notoriously difficult to perfect both rapid strep and flu tests also have issues with accuracy the U.S. should focus on fixing capacity issues with lab-based tests, which are being slowed in part because of supply shortages.

"We have the equipment, but we can't get the reagents," Jerome said. "We did a little over 7,000 tests yesterday in my laboratory. But we could have done 7,000 more if we had full allotments of reagents."

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The delays in testing have a real impact for people like Frank Borsa, 55, who anxiously waited for days to find out whether he was infected after he returned to Brooklyn, New York, from Miami.

"It's really frustrating," Borsa said while he was still waiting for the results. "I've called repeatedly. What you get is 'it's taking a little bit longer.' It's very difficult, because you don't know how to go forward."

He finally got his results 12 days after he took the test at a New York City urgent care center. He was negative. But he said he now understands what the hubbub around testing is all about.

"Even though there might be hundreds of thousands of tests performed per day, if people are not getting their results, this is never going to end," he said. "The communication is there's tons of tests. But if there's no results, what good is it?"

Read more from the original source:

COVID-19 tests: There's an insurmountable backlog of virus tests. A rapid test could help. - NBC News

FOX Business Charlie Gasparino says Wall Street is betting sports may make a big comeback once the coronavirus pandemic subsides.

While NHL games will be played without fans for the foreseeable future due to the coronavirus pandemic, New York Islanders co-owner Jon Ledecky expects record crowds in the stands by the time his teams new arena opens in 2021.

The Islanders tapped Swiss bank UBS to serve as the naming rights partner for their new arena in Elmont, New York, in a 20-year deal reportedly worth $350 million. Ledecky said UBS's massive long-term investment, announced at a time of unprecedented uncertainty in U.S. sports, signals thebusiness world expects packed crowds as soon as a coronavirus vaccine makes it safe to attend games in person.

I think the resilience of America and the resilience of our fans should not be underestimated, Ledecky told FOX Business. I think what youll see is that once the coast is clear, once the health authorities and the political authorities get together and say the coronavirus is on the decline or once a vaccine is developed, I think youre going to see people return to arenas and stadiums across this country in record numbersbecause they want to support the United States.

CORONAVIRUS PROMPTS NFL TO MANDATE FACE MASKS FOR FANS

Co-Owner and Alternative Governer of the New York Islanders, Jon Ledecky speaks to the media during a press conference at Turf & Field Club on December 20, 2017 in South Ozone Park, New York. (Photo by Mike Stobe/NHLI via Getty Images)

UBS Arena at Belmont Park will serve as the centerpiece of a $1.5 billion development. Financial backers, including the Islanders, sports investment firm Oak View Group and New York Mets owner Jeff Wilpons Sterling Project Development, said the privately funded project will generate about $25 billion in economic activity, create 3,000 permanent jobs and support improvements in local infrastructure.

Construction on the Islanders new arena shut downfor several weeks in March, when the coronavirus pandemic brought nonessential work to a sudden halt and forced the NHL to suspend its season indefinitely. Despite the delay, Ledecky said the arena is still on track to open in time for the 2021-22 NHL season, adding that the Islanders organization is in a strong financial position despite the pandemics impact.

CORONAVIRUS FORCES JETS, GIANTS TO PLAY GAME WITHOUT FANS UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE

A rendering of UBS Arena at Belmont Park. (New York Islanders)

In fact, were going to be in the market hiring people, because when youre building a new arena and youre taking on a project of this magnitude, you need to add to your team, Ledecky said.

The UBS Arena project marks a major step for an Islanders franchise that had struggled for years to secure plans for a modern stadium. The team has been splitting its home games between the aging Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale and the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

Described as the first third-generation arena, the stadium will feature state-of-the-art amenities such as digitally enhanced concession stands. Long restroom lines, a much-maligned hallmark of the Nassau Coliseum fan experience, willnot be an issue. UBS Arena will have more bathrooms than any other stadium in the U.S.

UBS won naming rights after a competitive bidding process that included offers from up-and-coming digital media companies and iconic New York companies, according to Ledecky. The Islanders chose UBS, which has its U.S. headquarters in New York, because the bank is on stable footing and is well-capitalized amid pandemic-related uncertainty.

What a great endorsement by UBS that the resiliency of New York will be there, Ledecky said.

The NHL will resume play on Aug. 1 in bubble environments established in the Canadian cities of Toronto and Edmonton. The Islanders will face the Florida Panthers in a five-game qualifying round to determine which team makes the playoffs.

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While fans wont be able to attend the games in person, Ledecky said TV viewers can expect an electric experience. The NHL is expected to announce steps to recreate a traditional game environment in the coming days.

I think America has a chance here to fall in love with hockey all over again on television, Ledecky said.

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NHL crowds will break records once coronavirus vaccine is ready: NY Islanders owner - Fox Business

Launching today, the COVID-19 Law Lab initiative gathers and shares legal documents from over 190 countries across the world to help states establish and implement strong legal frameworks to manage the pandemic. The goal is to ensure that laws protect the health and wellbeing of individuals and communities and that they adhere to international human rights standards.

The new Lab (at http://www.COVIDLawLab.org) is a joint project of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Health Organization (WHO), the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the ONeill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University.

Well-designed laws can help build strong health systems; evaluate and approve safe and effective drugs and vaccines; and enforce actions to create healthier and safer public spaces and workplaces. Critically, they are key to effective implementation of the WHO International Health Regulations: surveillance; infection prevention and control; management of travel and trade; and implementation of measures to maintain essential health services.

Laws and policies that are grounded in science, evidence and human rights can enable people to access health services, protect themselves from COVID-19 and live free from stigma, discrimination and violence, says Achim Steiner, UNDP Administrator. The COVID-19 Law Lab is an important tool for sharing good practices on laws and policies.

The COVID-19 pandemic has seen a vast increase in urgent legislative action to control and reduce the pandemic.

Strong legal frameworks are critical for national COVID-19 responses, said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.Laws that impact health often fall outside the health sector. As health is global, legal frameworks should be aligned with international commitments to respond to current and emerging public health risks. A strong foundation of law for health is more important now than ever before.

However, laws that are poorly designed, implemented, or enforced can harm marginalized populations, entrench stigma and discrimination, and hinder efforts to end the pandemic.

Harmful laws can exacerbate stigma and discrimination, infringe on peoples rights and undermine public health responses, according to Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of UNAIDS. To ensure responses to the pandemic are effective, humane and sustainable, governments must use the law as a tool to uphold the human rights and dignity of people affected by COVID-19.

The COVID-19 Law Lab is a database of laws that countries have implemented in response to the pandemic. It includes state of emergency declarations, quarantine measures, disease surveillance, legal measures relating to mask-wearing, social distancing, and access to medication and vaccines. The database will continue to grow as more countries and themes are added.

It will also feature research on different legal frameworks for COVID-19. These analyses will focus on the human rights impacts of public health laws and help countries identify best practices to guide their immediate responses to COVID-19 and socioeconomic recovery efforts once the pandemic is under control. It builds off the work of the UHC Legal Solutions Network, which was established to help countries achieve universal health coverage through the implementation of rights-based legal frameworks.

We need to track and evaluate how laws and policies are being used during the Pandemic to understand what works, said Dr. Matthew M. Kavanagh, faculty in Georgetown Universitys Department of International Health. Katie Gottschalk, Executive Director of the ONeill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University Law Center added, We must learn lessons from the early stage of pandemic policies to implement the most effective laws going forward the COVID-19 Law Lab allows us to do just that.

UNDP is the leading United Nations organization fighting to end the injustice of poverty, inequality, and climate change. Working with ourbroad network of experts and partners in 170 countries, we help nations to build integrated, lasting solutions for people and planet.

Learn more atundp.orgor follow at @UNDP.

The World Health Organization provides global leadership in public health within the United Nations system. Founded in 1948, WHO works with194 Member States, across six regions and from more than 150 offices,to promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable. Our goal for 2019-2023 is to ensure that a billion more people have universal health coverage, to protect a billion more people from health emergencies, and provide a further billion people with better health and wellbeing. For updates on COVID-19 and public health advice to protect yourself from coronavirus, visitwww.who.intand follow WHO onTwitter,Facebook,Instagram,LinkedIn,TikTok,Pinterest,Snapchat,YouTube

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) leads and inspires the world to achieve its shared vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. UNAIDS unites the efforts of 11 UN organizationsUNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, UN Women, ILO, UNESCO, WHO and the World Bankand works closely with global and national partners towards ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. Learn more atunaids.organd connect with us onFacebook,Twitter,InstagramandYouTube.

The ONeill Institute, housed at Georgetown University, was established to create innovative solutions to the most pressing national and international health concerns, with the essential vision that the law has been, and will remain, a fundamental tool for solving critical health problems. The Georgetown University Department of International Health is home to scholarship in public health, economics, political science, and medicine. Georgetowns Global Health Initiative serves as a university-wide platform for developing concrete solutions to the health challenges facing families and communities throughout the world. Read more at oneillinstitute.org and connect with us on Twitter and Facebook.

The COVID-19 Law lab is a product of the UHC Legal Solutions Network is a collaboration between the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS), the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), and the ONeill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University. The initiative aims to support countries to achieve universal health coverage by working with policymakers, civil society groups and other stakeholders to craft laws ensure that all people and communities have the right to access the promotive, preventive, curative, rehabilitative and palliative health services they need, of sufficient quality to be effective, while also ensuring that the use of these services does not expose the user to financial hardship.

Link:

New COVID-19 Law Lab to provide vital legal information and support for the global COVID-19 response - World Health Organization

By: Stephen M. Hahn, M.D., Commissioner of Food and Drugs, Patrizia Cavazzoni, M.D., Acting Director, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, and Peter Marks, M.D., Ph.D., Director, Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research

When the U.S. Food and Drug Administration learned of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) and its potentially devastating effects, we acted swiftly to set the regulatory stage for drug and biologics manufacturers to develop products to treat this serious disease. To meet this urgent need, the FDA created the Coronavirus Treatment Acceleration Program (CTAP) to enable the FDAs Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) and Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) to leverage cross-agency scientific resources and expertise to bear on COVID-19 therapeutic development and review. Were excited to say that there are now more than 510 drug development programs in planning stages, and as of today, the agency has reviewed more than 230 trials of potential therapies for COVID-19.

While the FDA is part of a whole of government approach to COVID-19, CTAP is a distinct component of this effort focusing specifically on therapeutics, not vaccines or devices. Another major initiative of the U.S. government, Operation Warp Speed (OWS), funds and rapidly develops or co-develops vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics, while the FDA, through CTAP, regulates therapeutic development. There is a clear delineation between OWS executive actions and FDA regulatory decision-making.

The FDA recognized that there would be a need for early and frequent discussions between the agency and potential therapeutic product developers. So early on, we set up an email inbox for COVID-19 therapeutic development inquiries, COVID19-productdevelopment@fda.hhs.gov. It helps researchers and developers get directed to the right person on the first try and enables us to track inquiries.

Each inquiry the FDA receives is reviewed by a triage team that is composed of experienced clinical reviewers, other scientific reviewers, policy experts and regulatory project management staff. The team strives to acknowledge receipt within 24 hours. These staff help those with proposals for potential COVID-19 therapeutics identify and add any information necessary to ensure that the proposal is complete enough for productive discussion. Then, the team sends the proposal with a brief synopsis to the right organizational unit within the FDA for review by disease area experts.

Teams of experienced clinical reviewers and regulatory affairs experts in CDER and CBER provide outreach and regulatory advice to less experienced inquirers. Preliminary, partially-formed inquiries go to them before they are assigned to product review teams to determine next steps for engaging with the FDA, including what regulatory submission is appropriate, what to include in that submission, and how to submit it.

Once individual inquiries develop into proposals, our discussions with sponsors can then meet several key milestones:

We will continue to report the number of active drug development programs, studies underway, EUAs and approvals at our CTAP program dashboard monthly.

Behind the scenes of CTAP, office leaders within CDER and CBER align our efforts across therapeutic areas, scientific disciplines, and organizational units. Clinical, operations and policy supervisors meet regularly to discuss staffing support, trial design, endpoint selection, and consistency of practice and expectations for COVID-19 submissions. Clinical and biostatistical experts meet regularly to share information, advance our scientific understanding and develop consistent approaches. Senior leadership stay actively engaged on key drug and biologic development and review issues.

When CTAP started, we achieved extraordinary turnaround times for certain significant inquiries and proposals, to get key studies going rapidly. For therapeutic development programs with strong rationales and evidence, we continue to dramatically exceed standard timelines. We have found that a complete pre-IND submission is the key to expediting comprehensive pre-IND advice, more rapid review of the subsequent IND and more rapid clinical trial initiation.

While we have shortened our timelines, our regulatory review and decision-making processes have not changed. Interactions with review teams follow our usual stable, predictable, and flexible process. We give all researchers and developers our best advice, apply our legal and regulatory standards, and make decisions on the basis of the science and the data.

Safe and effective COVID-19 therapeutics and other medical products are a very high priority at the FDA. We understand the impact of this public health emergency and approach our role in facilitating the development and availability of important medical products with the strongest sense of urgency.

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An Update and Behind the Scenes: FDA's Coronavirus Treatment Acceleration Program - FDA.gov

Good morning.

(This article is part of the California Today newsletter. Sign up here to receive it by email.)

Californians who dont have symptoms of Covid-19 will probably have a harder time getting tested for the coronavirus, according to new, stricter guidelines state officials unveiled on Tuesday.

It is critical we continue to be deliberate and creative about testing, Dr. Mark Ghaly, the states head of health and human services, said in a statement. We must do this so that testing is readily available and affordable to those who need it, especially those communities experiencing the worst impacts.

In a virtual news conference, Dr. Ghaly said California was also exploring opportunities for pooled testing, a strategy that could help identify infections in large groups more quickly.

The shift in testing strategy comes as more states around the country have scrambled to ramp up testing, which has resulted in tighter supply chains and longer turnaround times in California, the nations most populous state.

California has contended with an explosion in cases, prompting Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday to announce the most sweeping rollback yet of reopening plans.

[Read about which businesses were ordered to close down.]

As of Tuesday, California was averaging 8,334 new cases per day over the past week, compared with 3,041 new cases per day on average just a month ago.

Heres what to know about the changes:

Why are they happening now?

Over the past two weeks, the state reported 107,600 tests per day on average a huge increase over the past couple of months. But the states percentage of tests that have come back positive for the virus has inched upward, as well, to 7.1 percent on average over the past two weeks.

Our testing capacity has increased exponentially, Dr. Ghaly said in the statement. At the same time, new national supply chain challenges and large volumes of specimens sent to commercial laboratories have resulted in growing delays in processing times.

What do the new guidelines say?

Previously, state and local officials had encouraged anyone who wanted to get tested to see if they were eligible, whether or not they had symptoms, as testing capacity ramped up across California and case numbers were less troubling.

Under the new guidelines, Dr. Ghaly said that testing would be much more strategically targeted at people in communities where risks of transmission are higher.

Of course, people who have severe symptoms will be prioritized for tests with quick results so they can get a diagnosis and be treated.

According to the new rules, people who have been hospitalized fall in the Tier 1 priority group, along with people who must be tested as part of investigations into specific outbreaks.

Tier 2 includes everyone else with Covid-19 symptoms, as well as people who live or work in the kinds of facilities where outbreaks have been most severe, such as nursing homes, prisons and homeless shelters. It also includes health care workers who have frequent interactions with the public or with people who may have Covid-19.

Tier 3 includes workers in remaining essential sectors, like grocery stores, logistics, manufacturing and education, if they dont have symptoms.

And then, theres Tier 4, which will be implemented only when the test turnaround time is less than 48 hours, as monitored by the state. Thats when anyone else who doesnt have symptoms, but is worried they may have been infected, can get tested.

How will these new rules help stop the spread of the virus?

While individual actions, like following distancing and mask-wearing rules, are critical for curbing the spread of the virus, increasingly, experts have recognized that many transmissions are taking place because Californians who work in low-wage, high-risk jobs havent been able to stop working.

In a first-of-its-kind analysis, researchers at the University of California, Merced, Community and Labor Center found a connection between high concentrations of low-wage work in certain counties like at farms and in warehouses and the prevalence of Covid-19.

Our findings emphasized the importance of not just regulating business openings, but mitigating Covid spread by innovating health and safety reforms for workers, Ana Padilla, the centers executive director, told me.

One way to do that is to ensure that workers in those communities have access to testing and that workplace outbreaks are transparent. That would mean requiring counties to report test results by industry, the report said.

Although we have guidance and support, we know that testing in those environments is key, Dr. Ghaly said on Tuesday, adding that thats why the new testing strategy involves homing in on workplace outbreaks.

Updated July 15, 2020

Still, he said the state hadnt specifically asked counties to report test results by industry or employer.

[Read more about how the pandemic has put warehouse workers in the Inland Empire in a tough spot.]

We often link to sites that limit access for nonsubscribers. We appreciate your reading Times coverage, but we also encourage you to support local news if you can.

The Trump administration abandoned its plan to strip international college students of their visas if they didnt attend at least one class in person. It was a rare and swift reversal in response to fierce opposition. [The New York Times]

Most of the nations big school districts including in Los Angeles and San Diego arent ready to reopen, because the test positivity rates in the communities where theyre located are much too high. And reassuring examples of schools reopening abroad dont apply here. [The New York Times]

Bankruptcy forced Stockton to defund its Police Department, making it an inadvertent laboratory for pushes to reduce the roles of law enforcement officers in keeping communities safe. [The Los Angeles Times]

If you missed it, heres what Stocktons mayor had to say about calls to defund the police now. [The New York Times]

Transit agencies around the country are struggling. In the Bay Area, there are too many disjointed systems and not enough riders. [Bloomberg CityLab]

Wineries were beginning to settle into a new normal. Then they were told they had to shut down indoor operations.[The San Francisco Chronicle]

He goes by Bruce or Paco or Peter or Pierre or Abraham. He is a peacock. And hes tearing a North Oakland neighborhood apart. [SFGate]

We joke about it: How many years has it been since 2020 started? How many lifetimes?

Theres a sense that were living through a momentous period in history a global pandemic, uprisings over racial justice that have poured into every corner of society and broad recognition that the world is changing rapidly.

So museums and curators are asking us all to help them help future generations understand this time by documenting it. Everything, like protest signs, shopping lists, or snippets of video.

Whatever were taking to be ordinary within this abnormal moment can, in fact, serve as an extraordinary artifact to our childrens children, Tyree Boyd-Pates, an associate curator at the Autry Museum of the American West, told Lesley M.M. Blume, in this article. The Autry is asking for submissions to its Collecting Community History Initiative.

California Today goes live at 6:30 a.m. Pacific time weekdays. Tell us what you want to see: CAtoday@nytimes.com. Were you forwarded this email? Sign up for California Today here and read every edition online here.

Jill Cowan grew up in Orange County, went to school at U.C. Berkeley and has reported all over the state, including the Bay Area, Bakersfield and Los Angeles but she always wants to see more. Follow along here or on Twitter.

California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from U.C. Berkeley.

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Why You May Not Be Able to Get a Coronavirus Test in California - The New York Times

CHICAGO Chicago could close businesses and go back to Phase 3 if new cases continue to climb, Mayor Lori Lightfoot warned Wednesday morning.

The announcement comes as the citys average number of new cases continues to climb, as does the positivity rate. Young people are driving the uptick in new cases, with people age 18-29 now accounting for 30 percent of coronavirus cases reported in recent weeks in Chicago, officials said.

The Lincoln Park area is the spot thats seen the most increases in cases of people age 18-29.

Lightfoot said people age 18-29 must stop gathering in large groups and start wearing masks in public if the city wants to stay on track.

After that age group, the most new cases have been seen among people 30-39 and 40-49 years old, officials said.

The rise in cases comes as other cities across the country are rolling back their reopenings because theyve faced more significant surges in new cases.

Yes, our metrics are tracking better than the rest of the country, but that doesnt mean that we can ever let our guard down, Lightfoot said. It means our precautions are working and that we need to continue to be diligent.

The city is now seeing an average of 192 new cases per day. That number has been slowly climbing for weeks and its now worryingly close to 200, the number at which Chicago goes back to being considered a city with a high incidence of coronavirus.

And Dr. Allison Arwady, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, said she expects new cases to keep climbing.

When we get back above 200 were back in a high incidence state, and for me that means we are back in a caution state, Arwady said during Wednesdays press conference. At another point, she added, I think there is wishful thinking happening that COVID is over.

It is not over.

Hitting and staying above 200 will be a great concern for officials, Arwady said. Lightfoot said they had the press conference so they could warn Chicagoans theyre close to the 200 mark; they hope the warning can keep people from violating social distancing rules and driving up new cases.

If the city does hit more than 200 cases per day, it will not equal an automatic rollback to Phase 3, but officials will look at problem areas, Arwady said. If theyre seeing cases come from bars, theyd consider closing bars, for example.

For you following every day how were doing in Chicago, thats the number I want you to watch, Arwady said. And I want you to help us drive that number down. Its how we move ahead in Chicago and not backwards.

What things are closed or rolled back would depend on how much cases increase and how quickly, but the city could consider a full move back into Phase 3 if Chicago was seeing an average of more than 400 new cases per day, officials said.

An uptick would mean Chicago has no choice but to go back to Phase 3, Lightfoot said. Thatd mean an end to indoor dining, the closing of businesses like theaters and prohibiting people from gathering in groups larger than 10. Thered be restrictions on mobility again, as well, Lightfoot said.

Lightfoot said people must wear masks in public and stop gathering in large groups if they want to prevent a rollback and keep businesses open.

Minimize gathering in large groups. I repeat: The larger the group the higher risk that someone in that group has COVID-19. So minimize gathering in large groups, Lightfoot said. Wear a face covering when you leave your house everywhere not just some of the time, but all of the time. Thats critically important to reduce the spread.

Young people are at less risk for serious adverse effects of COVID-19, but they can happen, Arwady said. A Chicago woman in her 20s who had no significant underlying conditions had to get a double lung transplant last month coronavirus severely damaged her lungs.

You are not immune to COVID-19, Lightfoot said to young people. The reality is actually quite different, and the data proves it. Were seeing these increases across race and ethnicity and all over the city [among young people]. And this should be the proof that you need: If you are in the 18-to-29-year-old cohort, you are catching COVID-19. You are getting sick.

The problem isnt just that youre hurting yourself. The problem isnt just that youre hurting people in your network. Youre hurting the whole city.

Officials also pointed out young people could transmit the virus to older people, who are more at risk from COVID-19. Arwady said shes concerned Chicago could see an increase in cases among elderly people.

Especially if youre in a younger age group, Im not surprised youre out more, Arwady said. Youre at a lower risk, it is true, for these serious outcomes; but, if you have in your close circle people who have underlying conditions or especially people in those older age groups, I need you to be extra careful with those vulnerable folks in your life.

Still, Arwady noted, Chicago has seen fewer deaths in recent weeks. The city is down to an average of four deaths per day from coronavirus, the lowest that number has been since March. The doctor expects there will soon be a day when Chicago sees no deaths from COVID-19.

And hospitalization data looks great, Arwady said, with the numbers of people hospitalized, in the ICU and using a ventilator all declining.

Lightfoot said she wants to avoid shutting down the economy again, but, if we must, we must.

We are dangerously close to going back to a dangerous state of conditions, she said.

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Chicago 'Dangerously Close' To Reversing Course On Coronavirus Progress And Going Back To Phase 3, Mayor Warns - Block Club Chicago

UPDATED 4:15 PM One day after Los Angeles County reported a record number of new coronavirus cases, the Los Angeles Public Health Department confirmed that Wednesday saw the highest number of COVID-related hospitalizations reported since the pandemic began. There are currently 2,193 people currently hospitalized with coronavirus. That breaks a record set just two days before.

Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer called new data troubling and startling, before warning a return of a countywide stay-at-home order might be in the offing.

The director announced that the 7-day rolling average of the test positivity rate is up to 9.8 percent. Thats compared to 9 percent earlier this week.

Ferrer said the county had seen 2,758 new cases of COVID-19 reported over the past 24 hours. While not an all-time high, the number was significant enough to prompt the director to say, We are in an alarming place. She followed by saying noting the 7-day average of 2,859 new cases a day is double where it was in June.

Related StoryLos Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti Warns He Is On Brink Of Issuing A Total Shutdown Order As Coronavirus Hospitalizations, ICU Cases Hit New High

We dont want to see upwards of 3,000 cases a day, she said.

We now see a 3 day average of over 2,000 people hospitalized from COVID-19, more than at any other time since the pandemic began, said Ferrer. Those are the highest rates the region has had since the pandemic began.

There has also been an increase in patients who need ICU and ventilators, said Dr. Christina Ghaly, Director of the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services. She then reported that the effective transmission number is now 1.07. Thats up from 1.01 late last week.

As a result, The number of ICU beds may become inadequate, she warned. Hospitals and local health officials are, according to Ghaly, Working to implement disaster plans. The biggest issue thats constraining ICU beds is staffing, she said, not the beds themselves.

The number of remaining ICU beds was, frustratingly, not given. But Ferrer did reveal that there are currently 2,193 people who are hospitalized with COVID-19.

According to L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti, on Monday there was a record-high total of 2,103 hospitalizations in the county, with 766 beds left. Monday saw an increase to 565 ICU patients compared with 397 a month ago, Garcetti said then. There were 141 ICU beds remaining in the greater Los Angeles area at that time, according to the Mayor.

These trends are related to actions two weeks ago, said Ferrer, noting the recent Memorial Day holiday. But, after several workplace closings after outbreaks, businesses also need to do better, she indicated.

All workplaces, she said, must deploy essential resources to every worker.

Keeping businesses open is only possible if we can slow the spread, said Ferrer. Business owners and operators, she continued, have a moral corporate responsibility to keep employees healthy.

When asked about a renewed Safer-At-Home order, Ferrer said, We cant take anything off the table. We have to do everything we can to protect the health care system. Do we want to go back to a Safer-At home order? Absolutely not.

The trends, however, seem to have L.A. headed in that direction.

On Monday California Governor Gavin Newsom ordered all counties to close their restaurants, movie theaters, family entertainment centers, wineries, zoos and bars for indoor service. Bars were ordered to close entirely.

Additionally, L.A. and 31 other counties on the states monitoring list must close fitness centers, places of worship, nail and hair salons and indoor malls. Other L.A.-local counties impacted include Santa Barbara, Ventura, San Diego, Orange and virtually every other county in Southern California.

On Tuesday, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health confirmed record new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in a day with 4,244 new cases and 2,103 people currently hospitalized.

That compares with 2,593 new COVID-19 cases on Monday.

Of the 2,103 people hospitalized on Monday, 27 percent of these people are confirmed cases in the ICU and 19 percent are confirmed cases on ventilators. According to L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti, on Monday there were only 766 hospital beds left for the regions 10 million residents.

That led Garcetti to say that the citys COVID-19 threat meter is on the border of going to red, the highest level, which would mean a complete shutdown in L.A. owing to the pandemic.

The county confirmed 73 new deaths of Covid-19 on Tuesday. This is one of the highest number of new deaths reported in a day and may reflect a lag in the reporting of deaths over the weekend. To put that in perspective, said Ferrrer, 76 deaths is the most weve seen since this pandemic began.

There were 44 new deaths due to coronavirus on Wednesday, with a total of 3,932 total deaths in L.A. County since the pandemic began.

On Wednesday, health officials also announced that the county is expanding its testing footprint by 65 percent over the next few weeks, especially in South Los Angeles. Currently, the region conducts about 100,000 tests a day for a population of 10 million.

New health officer order, effective today prioritizes those who have symptoms, are in high-risk settings. Known close contact. Essential workers. Effective today. Unless you fall into one of those categories, you may not need to be tested.

The order comes one day after Governor Gavin Newsom announced similar guidance on testing.

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Los Angeles County Coronavirus Hospitalizations Break Record For Second Time This Week As Top Health Official Warns New Stay-At-Home Order Not Off The...

He loved to get his family together, Ms. Flores said. And thats what took him.

My familys encounter with the virus started in the last week of June, when my 17-year-old nephew, who mistook his virus symptoms for strep, joined my 66-year-old mother, 69-year-old father, two sisters and a brother-in-law on a medical road trip to Houston, where my mother had scheduled a mammogram.

Hablas espaol? To read more of our stories in Spanish, subscribe to our newsletter El Times.

On their way back to the Valley, they visited relatives in Galveston. After Fathers Day, about a dozen relatives who had met one another during the trip began describing debilitating headaches, body chills, fever and trouble breathing, all classic Covid-19 symptoms.

The Contreras family was in a similar situation. They gathered for their festive pachanga on June 1, dancing to mariachi music, sharing family stories and savoring classic Mexican barbecue.

Because they kept it small, they thought they were doing the right thing, said Ms. Flores, who stayed home because she worried about the virus.

It only took a few days for Mr. Contreras to develop a severe respiratory illness. Two of his sons soon joined him in the hospital with difficulty breathing. Soon uncles, aunts and cousins also fell ill.

Ms. Flores told me that when she heard her grandfathers brain was bleeding, she rushed to the hospital and found him unconscious and connected to several tubes.

Your gera is here, she whispered, using the nickname he had given her as a child, alluding to her light complexion.

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I Went Home to Texas to Cover the Virus. Then My Family Got It. - The New York Times

The BDN is making the most crucial coverage of the coronavirus pandemic and its economic impact in Maine free for all readers. Click here for all coronavirus stories. You can join others committed to safeguarding this vital public service by purchasing a subscription or donating directly to the newsroom.

Another 12 cases of the coronavirus have been detected in Maine, health officials said Wednesday.

There have now been 3,578 cases across all of Maines counties since the outbreak began here in March, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Thats up from 3,566 on Tuesday.

Of those, 3,186 have been confirmed positive, while 392 are likely positive, according to the Maine CDC.

New cases were tallied in Androscoggin (4), Cumberland (4), Oxford (1), Penobscot (1), Waldo (1) and Washington (1) counties. Daily changes in county-level data may vary from new case reports as the Maine CDC continues to investigate cases.

No new deaths were reported Wednesday, leaving the statewide death toll at 114. Nearly all deaths have been in Mainers over age 60.

So far, 373 Mainers have been hospitalized at some point with COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. Of those, 12 are currently hospitalized, with nine in critical care and four on ventilators.

Meanwhile, 17 more people have recovered from the coronavirus, bringing total recoveries to 3,079. That means there are 385 active and likely cases in the state, down from 390 on Tuesday.

Heres the latest on the coronavirus and its impact on Maine.

International students at the University of Maine are relieved that they no longer will have to leave the country if the university continues to offer only remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Eesha Pendharkar, BDN

The committee charged with recommending urgent measures to stabilize and support Maines economy amid the coronavirus pandemic recommended the state provide $1.1 billion in aid in an initial report to Gov. Janet Mills on Tuesday. Lori Valigra, BDN

Mainers came out, wore masks and stood 6 feet apart on Tuesday to cast their votes in the states primary election. See how the turnout looked amid the coronavirus pandemic in this photo essay. Natalie Williams, BDN

University of Southern Maine director of athletics Al Bean said he and school administrators agonized over the decision to cancel fall semester sports due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. But they felt there was no choice. Larry Mahoney, BDN

As of Wednesday evening, the coronavirus has sickened 3,478,017 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 137,106 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.

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July 15 evening update: The latest on the coronavirus and Maine - Bangor Daily News