Category Archives: Covid-19

School variance:The Williamsville Central School District, the regions largest suburban district, reported the most cases on-site with 283 through February. Frontier reported 179; Niagara Falls, 172; Orchard Park, 160; North Tonawanda, 143; Ken-Ton, 126; Starpoint, 115; and Lockport, 112.

Buffalo Public Schools, which didnt reopen classrooms to students until Feb. 1, reported 90 cases.

Early in January and early February, it was two a day. In a week, we probably had 12 to 14, said Mark Laurrie, superintendent of the Niagara Falls City School District.

This week, were probably going to have two to four cases, Laurrie said on Feb. 25. I feel for the first time like theres light at the end of the tunnel.

Other districts reported far fewer on-site cases, including Springville, 7; Depew, 12; Iroquois, 15; Eden and Cheektowaga Central, each 20; North Collins, 24; and Maryvale, 25.

Safe schools:Despite the winter surge, school and health officials maintain schools are not a major spreader of the virus and that transmission rates are lower than in the general population because of adherence to the protocols wearing masks, social distancing and reducing capacity in the buildings.

They have some cases, dont get me wrong, but schools have been seen as very low risk, said Daniel Stapleton, Niagara Countys health director.

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Fully reopen schools? Here's what the Covid-19 numbers say - Buffalo News

COVID-19 might soon be a thing of the past now that several vaccines are widely available. But some adaptations to deal with the novel coronavirus are likely here to stay.

Housing market heats upLois Surmi, president of the Durango Area Association of Realtors board of directors and managing broker with R1 Colorado Durango, said in March that 2020 looked grim in the real estate industry as public health orders took effect.

A year ago, we went through a period where we werent able to even get into our own listings to take photos. We couldnt go in, and we thought, How long is this gonna last? she said.

It turns out, it wasnt long at all.

When showings were allowed to resume in summer, small mountain towns across Colorados Western Slope had become popular destinations for homebuyers looking to flee densely populated cities vulnerable to the coronavirus.

The median price for a home in La Plata County jumped 15.8% to $449,000 in 2020, up from $387,750 in 2019.

In the fourth quarter of 2020, from October to December, the median price for a home in La Plata County rose more than 40%, to $631,807 from $450,277.

A big factor was the sale of homes valued $1 million or more.

Rick Lorenz, who compiles statistics for Team Lorenz, said strong demand drove up median and average prices. A limited supply of new housing also helped.

In 2020, Lorenzs statistics showed 100 homes sold for $800,000 to $1 million, compared with 34 homes in 2019. Ninety-eight homes sold for $1 million and up, compared with 49 in 2019.

Surmi said that even in the seasonably slow winter, heavy demand for homes in La Plata County continues.

I know its winter, but were seeing the same kind of urban refugees. Its not letting up, she said, adding, Things may level off at some point, but the demand is real.

Bump-outs debutThe city of Durango will resume its bump-out program March 15. The outdoor patio dining areas helped Main Avenue businesses endure indoor dining restrictions that limited capacity, sometimes down to 25%.

In 2021, the city plans to add concrete planters and other design tweaks to make bump-outs safer.

Their vulnerability became apparent Sept. 16, when a drunken driver plowed into Tequilas patio space and sent four people to the hospital.

Still, bump-outs were popular with customers, and restaurateurs said they helped keep doors open.

Assistant City Manger Kevin Hall told The Durango Herald: We are getting a lot of positive feedback. We did restrict the road a bit and chewed up a little bit of parking, but it seems to be working.

Workers go remoteOffices across the country allowed employees to work remotely when it became apparent in spring that large gatherings threatened to spread COVID-19.

Miguel Munoz, an e-commerce entrepreneur working remotely in Durango, said the pandemic accelerated an already strong movement to work remotely by five to 10 years.

Munoz and his wife, Ina Ropotica, relied on remote work for the pandemic and moved to Durango from Spain in August for a better work-life balance. They see it as the way of the future.

In November, FIS Worldpay closed its 81,380-square-foot building, which housed about 250 people in Durango, to transition employees to remote work.

Members of Durango City Council, including Mayor Dean Brookie, are asking how remote work might impact the use of city facilities. Many city employees now work in a remote-and-office hybrid model after going all-remote for months last year.

Office space increasesA consequence of remote work has been a glut of office space in Durango.

John Wells, owner-broker of the Wells Group, told the Herald: We have seen some increased vacancy rates based, obviously, on all this occurring this year as part of the COVID.

Employers learned they could do with less space, and telecommuting didnt decrease productivity.

Some of those employers may have discovered they were still operating efficiently, and they didnt need the cost of 4,000 (square) feet, he said. Maybe they just need 1,000 or 2,000 square feet, some conference rooms and meeting rooms, and then a certain percentage of their employees are going to want to continue to work from home. They realize they dont need all that office space.

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Some COVID-19 adaptations will have legs - The Durango Herald

Phaedra Simon, a single mom of three from Opelousas, LouisianaI'm not trained to teach them how to read. It's totally different from how I learned.

Simon worked hard to keep her children ages9, 8 and 7 on track when they started the year virtually like everyone else in the St. Landry Parish school district. She even quit her jobto give her youngest the attention he needed.

As soon as the chance came to return to in-person learning, she seized it, even as she worries about their health."I'm not trained to teach them how to read," Simon said.

She's continued working with them, reading at home together every night. "I'm still nervous, waiting to see their new report cards," Simon said.

School looks different for kids and parents during the COVID-19 pandemic

Kindergarteners and their parents explain what school is like a year into the COVID-19 pandemic.

USA TODAY

Nearly a year into remote learning, instilling good learning habits remains a daily mission for Pam Bowling, a first grade teacher atAllen Elementary School in eastern Kentucky. Shepeppers every virtual lesson with positive narration Good job! I hear reading books being opened! a management technique usually reserved for kids off-task in an actual classroom.

Only now, the 6- and 7-year-olds in Bowlings class log on from their homes, many still donning pajamas.

Pam Bowling, a first grade teacher at Allen Elementary School in Allen City, Ky., reviews sight words with her class during a Feb. 15, 2021 virtual lesson.Floyd County Public Schools

Make sure we're sitting up, Bowling trilled at the start of her daily 9 a.m. reading session. I want you to be comfortable, but I dont want you to be too comfortable, right? We dont want to fall asleep. We want to make sure were sitting up, paying attention, just like we were at school.

On a mid-February morning, one perched at a desk, another sprawled on a couch, a thirdsatcross-legged in her bed, a stuffed Olaf, the snowman from the movie "Frozen," at her side.

I've got em with hair that looks like they've been shot out of a cannon,joked Bowling, an educator for 25 years.They're getting up, and their hair is every which way. And you can tell they're sleepy.

Even for veterans such as Bowling,teaching students to read over a videoconferencecall is an unprecedented challenge.

"It's particularly hard for teachers right now," said Taylor, the early learning professor fromRhodes College. "I dont think you can make the same connections, give the same in-the-moment feedback or at least as often as you might be if you had all of your students in a room."

In Floyd County, a community of about 36,000 in Kentuckys rural Appalachia region, Bowlings pleas for focus and participation are motivated by an unsettling reality: Poverty rates are high, and educational attainment is low.There is no time to waste.

Except for a brief return to in-person classes in the early fall, Bowling, 50,has been teaching from her dining room, a focus wall displaying weekly spelling words and reading skills affixed to a wooden hutch behind her seat.

I was very skeptical (of remote learning), Bowling recalled. I said, I don't know how we're gonna read through the camera. I don't know how that's gonna translate.

There was no sign of her early skepticism during the class's mid-February lesson asBowling and her students tackledsight words, spelling with the short e and nonfiction reading comprehension. Bowling, who said she can be her own worst critic, said she triesto remember the setup is only temporary.

Its just swallowing the fact that Hey, this is what I've been dealt with, she said. It might not be the best, it may not be the easiest approach, but and I say this almost every day to my parents and kids we're just gonna roll with the hand were dealt.

The next day, a brutal snow and ice storm knocked out power for nearly 48 hours. A few days after that, another momentous challenge loomed: With little time to prepare, Bowling and her kids eased back to in-person classes on a hybrid schedule, a litany of health and safety routines added to her charge.

"We're just gonna roll with it," she said.

WATCH: Three third grade teachers, three perspectives

When schools shuttered in March, Sydney Tolbert was a preschooler atthe Libertas Schoolof Memphis, Tennessee'sonly public Montessori charter school, and starting to makestrides in reading, her mother said.

"She was just right there. And then all of a sudden, we just stopped, recalledStephanie Tolbert, who felt relief that Libertas was of the few public schools in Memphis that offered in-person classes beginning in the fall.

I knew that if we could get her back in school, that she would just take off," Tolbert said. "And you could just see her. I watched her just, like, flourish. It was awesome.

In-person learning isn'ta pandemic panacea, especially for youngsters learning to read. In Sydney's multi-grade classroom, teacher Toni Sudduth, a classroom assistant and the 15 students practice social distancing and wear masks even when outside.

Second grader Skylar Tolbert, 7, peers over the shoulder of her younger sister, Sydney, 6, a kindergartner at Libertas School of Memphis. The sisters read at home each night after school.Courtesy photo

Although it helps that the curriculum is individualized for each student,group reading lessons, such as reviewing letter sounds, have had to be abbreviated. It's a challenge for students to be able to watch how their teacher's mouth moves while sounding out letter combinations and words. Sudduth started the year with a face mask with a clear window, but it kept fogging up. She switched to a clear face shield, so she can pulldown her mask behind the shield to demonstrate how a sound is made, then pull her mask up as the class makes the sound together, placing their hands to their throat to feel the sound as well.

Sounding out words is one area where online learning platforms provide an advantage, saidEmily Wakabi, areading interventionist at Libertas. I used to cue (students)every time, like, Watch my mouth,she said, and that's not helpful this year.

Most of Wakabi's work with about 40 children is done in person, but she meets online with students whose families don'twant to take the risk of returning to school. During a virtual session in February with second graderJada Guy, they worked onblending letter sounds to make words, and learning the new letter sound "ph." The computer froze, and an animated presentation to guide Jada as she pronounced the words lagged.

Know someone who has children who are struggling with reading? Share this story

Plenty of times, Jada demonstrated her excitement over what she was learning, including after writing down "pamphlet," a new word with the letter sound she'd been practicing.

"Was that fast, Ms. Wakabi?" she asked.

"That was so fast! You are fast," Wakabi said, explaining that building a student's confidence is a key to reading.

"A lot of times," she said, "kids need the motivation and encouragement to read just as much as they need the skills."

First grade teacher Kristin Bosco, left, works with a small group of students in her classroom at John Sevier Elementary in Maryville, Tenn., on Thursday, February 4, 2021. Bosco allows groups of up to eight virtual students to come into the classroom for in-person English-Language Arts learning from 8:30 to 11:30 in the morning.Brianna Paciorka/News Sentinel

The Zoom meetingfeaturedmore personality than you see in a typical office call. A child sipped water too close to the computer. Another yawned, mouth wide open to the screen. A third sat obscured by his pencil box, which was positioned in front of the camera.

Kristin Bosco no longer gets distracted by such sights. The first grade teacher at John Sevier Elementary in Maryville, Tennessee, in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains, has 17 students in her virtual class.

She's grown accustomed to it, even if it might never feel normal to teach reading over a computer screen. While the children read a passage about a king, seeking words with the "ng" sound, Bosco flipped through her Zoom panel to see each face to make sure everyone paid attention.

Between tasks, the children talk with each other, something Bosco said she believes is important for their social growth. Learning this way has given her a window into the children's home life that she didn't always have. She hears about and often sees the children's pets and learns things such as when a parent switches jobs.

Conversations are an important foundation to literacy,helping children build vocabulary and practicewhat they're learning on the page.

Allowing children to talk more is really important," said Holmes from UL-Lafayette. "Teachers are trained to get children talking to each other. Theyre not learning that original, authentic language otherwise.

After the classreading, students brokeup into groups based on their reading level. Teacher's aide Kim Wood worked with one group, while Bosco stayed with another. Two groups occupied themselves withindependent activities. The groups rotate each day.

Bosco workedwith two boys who need the most support, takingturns with them reading a digital book about ice cream. One boy, Kian, told his teacher how much he loves ice cream, making a connection between it and the smoothie he has every night.

Kian's mom,Adrienne Schwarte, said virtual learning has allowed her to witness more of the learning process than she might otherwise see. Schwarte, a college professor,and her husbandadded a reading nook to their home to give Kian and his brother opportunities to read.

We've seen his confidence level really grow with reading," Schwarte said. "I would sayKian was probably a little bit of a slower reader at his grade level at the beginning of the yearcompared to some of the other students, and he's really picked up over the last three or four months.

At the start of the school year, third grade teacher Lisa Gemarwas asked to be one of 11 virtual teachers needed for children who didn't want in-person learning at Northside Elementary School in the Clinton, Mississippi, school district. It was an adjustment, but she was up to the challenge.

"The expectations are no different," Gemar, a 10-year teaching veteran, said of leading a class in a Zoomsession. "I'm still able to pick up on what they're struggling with, and we've built a really great relationship even virtually through a screen."

Just like their peers who are learning in person, the virtual students take weekly assessments, so teachers canreview what areas students need extra work in.Students whoneed more help meet daily with an intervention specialist for 30 minutes.

The transition to virtual learning was eased by Clinton's eight-year track record as aone-to-onedistrict, meaning every student gets alaptop or tablet.

In the Madison County School District north of Jackson, Mississippi,sometechnology issues have meantmore students needadditional intervention, saidChristylErickson, the district's curriculum director.

Some (students) are coming back that were unfortunately, because they had no internet and even hot spots that we provided did not help some of these children were packet learners," Erickson said."Their parents taught them. Now, we did have very few of those,but that's still a gap we have to close for these kids.

The experts fear the pandemic willwiden achievement gaps.

"Knowing what we know about how education inequity works, I would think its more likely that were going to see larger gaps between schools, between districts, because of those different kinds of financial resources," said Rhodes College's Taylor. "I hope that our national conversation around that is focused on the different types of resources provided to those groups rather than to look at them as individual failings."

If early readersget the resources in time and attention that they need, UL-Lafayette's Holmes said, she'soptimistic they can overcome the pandemic's challenges.

"Children are strong and can bounce back quickly, sometimes a lot faster than adults,"Holmes said."With consistent routines in place, whether learning at home or at school, I have hope that they will catch up."

Early childhood education coverage at USA TODAY is made possible in part by a grant from Save the Children. Save the Children does not provide editorial input.

Published11:50 am UTC Mar. 7, 2021Updated5:33 pm UTC Mar. 7, 2021

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Students are struggling to read behind masks and screens during COVID-19, but expectations are no different - USA TODAY

If youre wondering why Zack Britton has yet to make his spring debut: hes coming along slowly due to a bout with COVID-19 this winter.

Per beat writer Dan Martin, Britton told the New York Post that he contracted COVID-19 in January, and it hit me pretty good.

I lost a good amount of weight. Physically, Im all good now but trying to be smart, Britton said in an email to the paper.

Britton further said the Yankees are building him up slowly he has participated in drills but not thrown off a mound in a week but he expects to be ready for Opening Day.

The Yankees did have another player affected by COVID this winter in Gio Urshela, who told The Post earlier this winter that surgery to remove bone chips in his elbow was delayed because he contracted the virus. Urshela has recovered from both the illness and the surgery, and made his spring training debut this week.

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Sports Zack Britton reveals bout with COVID-19 in January - 1010WINS

SALT LAKE CITY The first COVID-19 patient treated at University of Utah Hospital said he wasnt scared to die, but he was hoping to pull through after his lungs quit working.

Neal Murphy, 75, believes he contracted COVID-19 on a Feb. 27, 2020, flight from California to Salt Lake City to visit his son, who is a doctor at University Hospital. He said was too tired to go to dinner that night and by morning, his temperature had reached 104.5 degrees.

I said to my wife, This is not a cold. A day later, they said, this is COVID, Murphy recalled in a U. video production created to commemorate the anniversary of Murphys survival of COVID-19.

It was the worst possible scenario, he said, adding that he was immediately isolated at the hospital. Murphy was given supplemental oxygen and was ultimately intubated and put on a ventilator for five days. At one point, he was given a 3% chance of survival.

Ive beat odds like that, thats no problem, he said. Murphy said he posted a picture of the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., on his hospital bed railing. If he can survive five years of torture, I can go through this.

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Murphys son, Dr. Ryan Murphy, said that in his dads situation, theres nothing he could do ... either he was going to survive or hes not.

Hes all about the fight, the struggle never give up, never surrender. Thats his ethos, the younger Murphy said.

In all, the elder Murphy, a professor of dentistry in Cleveland, was hospitalized in Utah for 13 days.

I wasnt scared. Im 75 years old. Ive been around the block a few times, he said. Theres a point where you have to say, I can do no more.

Murphy said he felt reassured by the U. staff.

Miracles are helped along by the dedicated people in health care, that cannot be denied, he said. They really are heroes. I would be a dead man without them.

The Utah Department of Health reported 570 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, as well as five new deaths.

The number of new cases has been gradually declining since after the first of the year. The rolling seven-day average of people with confirmed cases is now 9.5% with the average percentage of tests sitting at 4.6%.

The state administered nearly 26,100 doses of COVID-19 vaccine since Fridays report, bringing the total number of people who have been fully vaccinated to 304,168 in Utah. A total of 843,032 doses of vaccine have been administered in the state, according to the health department.

Utah has tested 2.24 million people for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, including 7,052 since Fridays report was issued midday.

There are 194 people currently hospitalized with COVID-19, 29 fewer than was reported a week ago.

The deaths reported on Saturday include a Salt Lake County woman older than 85 who was not hospitalized at the time of her death; a Salt Lake County woman between the ages of 45 and 64 who was hospitalized; a Weber County man between 45 and 64 who was hospitalized; a Salt Lake County woman between 25 and 44 who was hospitalized; and, a Uintah County woman between 45 and 64 who was hospitalized.

The total number of lives lost to COVID-19 in Utah is at 1,975 since the pandemic hit here a year ago.

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First COVID-19 patient at U. Hospital says he wasnt scared to die - Deseret News

Heres what you need to know:People line up early at the Jacob Javits Convention Center Covid-19 vaccination hub on March 4, 2021.Credit...Timothy A. Clary/Agence France-Presse Getty Images

The average number of vaccine doses being administered across the United States per day topped two million for the first time on Wednesday, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A month ago, the average was about 1.3 million.

President Biden set a goal for the country shortly after taking office to administer more than 1.5 million doses a day, which the nation has now comfortably exceeded.

Mr. Biden has also promised to administer 100 million vaccines by his 100th day in office, which is April 30. As of Thursday, 54 million people have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine. Johnson & Johnsons one-shot vaccine was authorized for emergency use on Saturday, but those doses do not appear yet in the C.D.C. data.

The milestone was yet another sign of momentum in the nations effort to vaccinate every willing adult, even as state and city governments face several challenges, from current supply to logistics to hesitancy, of getting all of those doses into peoples arms.

Mass vaccination sites across the country are opening up or increasing their capacity, in part to respond to the new influx of doses from Johnson & Johnson. In New York, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced on Thursday that three short-term mass vaccination sites will open in the state on Friday. Three other state-run sites, including one at Yankee Stadium, will begin administering shots around the clock. In Georgia, Gov. Brian Kemp announced five new sites will open on March 17.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has recently helped open seven mega-sites in California, New York and Texas, that are staffed with active-duty troops. In Chicago, a vaccination site at the United Center will open next week, with a capacity of 6,000 shots a day. Many more such sites are planned.

There have been some hiccups in the massive logistical challenge of distributing millions of doses across the country, with special requirements for storage and handling. In Texas, more than 2,000 doses went to waste over the past two weeks, according to an analysis by The Houston Chronicle. A majority of those losses were blamed on blackouts that swept the state in February, leaving millions of homes and businesses without power, some for multiple days.

And Mr. Biden has made equity a major focus of his pandemic response, saying he wants pharmacies, mobile vaccination units and community clinics that help underserved communities to help increase the pace of vaccinations. Experts say that Black and Latino Americans are being vaccinated at lower rates because they face obstacles like language barriers and inadequate access to digital technology, medical facilities and transportation. But mistrust in government officials and doctors also plays a role and is fed by misinformation that is spread on social media. In cities across the country, wealthy white residents are lining up to be vaccinated in low-income Latino and Black communities.

The president said on Tuesday that the country would have enough doses available for every American adult by the end of May, though he said it would take longer to inoculate everyone and he urged people to remain vigilant by wearing masks.

The administration also announced it had brokered a deal in which the drug giant Merck & Co. will help manufacture the new Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The unusual agreement between two rivals in the pharmaceutical industry was historic, Mr. Biden said on Tuesday. This is a type of collaboration between companies we saw in World War II.

Mr. Biden was also going to invoke the Defense Production Act, a Korean War-era law, to give Johnson & Johnson access to supplies for manufacturing and packaging vaccines.

Connecticut will later this month end capacity limits in restaurants, offices and several other businesses, Ned Lamont, the states governor, said on Thursday, following moves by other states that have eased some virus-related restrictions.

But Mr. Lamont, a Democrat, will not lift his states mask mandate, drawing a distinction between his announcement and moves made by the Republican governors of Texas and Mississippi this week.

This is not Texas, this is not Mississippi this is Connecticut, Mr. Lamont said at a news conference.

Starting on March 19, restaurants, retail stores, libraries, personal care services, gyms, offices and houses of worship will no longer have their capacity restricted.

But businesses will be required to enforce rules on face coverings and to ensure six feet of space or plexiglass barriers between those inside customers and employees which will effectively limit capacity at several businesses.

Several other limits will remain in place, including safety and cleaning protocols at gyms and personal care services like salons and spas. Bars that do not serve food will remain closed. Unlike neighboring Massachusetts, Connecticut will not lift a curfew that requires restaurants and entertainment venues to close by 11 p.m.

Your mother used to tell you nothing good happens after 11 oclock at night, Mr. Lamont said. You know, it gets more fun sometimes, but were going to push that off a little bit longer.

Mr. Lamonts announcement made nearly a year after Connecticuts first confirmed case of the virus is a significant step forward for the states reopening.

It followed several weeks in which new cases, hospitalizations and deaths have declined in the state, a decrease that Mr. Lamont attributed to successful mask mandates and Connecticuts vaccination rollout program.

As of Thursday, the state had 433 people hospitalized with the virus. Its average positive test rate over the past seven days is at 2.3 percent, which Mr. Lamont said was the lowest rate in nearly four months.

Were beginning to get a handle on what works, he said, pointing to the decline.

Still, over the past week, Connecticut has reported an average of 22 new virus cases a day per 100,000 people, a rate that is the 10th highest per capita among all states.

The United States as a whole is averaging 19 new daily cases per 100,000 people. Federal health officials, including the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have urged governors not to relax their rules, warning that the country may be leveling off at a relatively high number of daily virus cases.

But Mr. Lamont said that he did not believe that the capacity limits on businesses were having a significant enough effect on curbing the virus that they needed to remain in place.

Its not so much a question of how you adjust the dial and go capacity up 10 percent or down 10 percent, or whether you have a curfew for two weeks or four weeks, and then you go back, Mr. Lamont said. I think were finding what works is wearing the mask, social distancing and vaccinations.

Mr. Lamonts announcement reflected decisions by other states to loosen virus-related restrictions as vaccination programs were ramping up and the number of new cases were starting to plateau. Throughout the pandemic, officials have had to adjust restrictions, finding a balance between safety, economic concerns and political pressure.

The governors of New York and New Jersey, both also Democrats, with whom Mr. Lamont has collaborated significantly on the pandemic response, have raised capacity limits in businesses, including restaurants, in the past month. Both of those states have been reporting new cases at the highest rates in the country.

A small group of scientists and others who believe the novel coronavirus that spawned the pandemic could have originated from a lab leak or accident is calling for an inquiry independent of the World Health Organizations team of independent experts sent to China last month.

While many scientists involved in researching the origins of the virus continue to assert that the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic almost certainly began with a leap from bats to an intermediate animal and then to humans, other theories persist and have gained new visibility with the W.H.O.-led team of experts recent visit to China.

Officials with the W.H.O. have said in recent interviews that it was extremely unlikely but not impossible that the spread of the virus was linked to some sort of lab accident.

In an open letter, first reported in The Wall Street Journal and Le Monde, the French newspaper, the signers list what they cast as flaws in the joint W.H.O.-China inquiry, and argue that it could not adequately address the possibility that the virus leaked from a lab.

Many of those who signed the letter were based in France. Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist at Rutgers University and one of the scientists who signed the letter, said it grew out of a series of online discussions among scientists, policy experts and others who came to be known informally as the Paris group.

Dr. Ebright said that no one in the group thought that the virus had been intentionally created as a weapon, but they were all convinced that an origin in a lab through research or by accidental infection was as likely as a spillover occurring in nature from animals to humans.

Asked to respond to the letter, Tarik Jasarevic, a spokesman for the W.H.O., replied in an email that the team of experts that had gone to China is working on its full report as well as an accompanying summary report, which we understand will be issued simultaneously in a couple of weeks.

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We need to get past Easter, and hopefully allow more Alabamians to get their first shot before we take a step that some of the states have taken to remove the mask order altogether and lift other restrictions. Folks, were not there yet, but goodness knows were getting closer. Our new modified order will include several changes that will ease up some of our current restrictions while keeping our mask order in place for another five weeks through April 9. But let me be abundantly clear, after April the 9th, I will not keep the mask order in effect. Now, theres no question that wearing masks has been one of our greatest tools in combating the spread of the virus. That, along with practicing good hygiene and social distancing, has helped us keep more people from getting sick or worse, dying. And when we even when we lift the mask order, I will continue to wear my mask while Im around others and strongly urge my fellow citizens to use common sense and do the same thing. But at the but at that time, it will become a matter of personal responsibility and not a government mandate.

Gov. Kay Ivey of Alabama on Thursday said she was extending the statewide mask order for another month, breaking with two other Republican governors who have announced plans to lift mandates in their states against the advice of federal health officials.

Aside from her decision on the mask mandate, which will now be in place until April 9, Ms. Ivey said other virus related restrictions, including allowing restaurants and breweries to operate at full capacity, will also be lifted then.

Theres no question that wearing masks has been one of my greatest tools in combating the virus, she said at a news conference.

New coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths are down in the state, according to a New York Times database. About 14 percent of the residents in the state have received at least one dose of the vaccine. The states health officer, Dr. Scott Harris, said the state had already given more than a million vaccine shots.

We need to get past Easter and hopefully allow more Alabamians to get their first shot before we take a step some other states have taken to remove the mask order altogether and lift some other restrictions, Ms. Ivey said on Thursday. Folks were not there yet, but goodness knows were getting closer.

In recent days, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, has been pleading with state officials not to relax health precautions now, warning about the trajectory of cases nationwide and the detection of more cases of virus variants across the country.

We are just on the verge of capitalizing on the culmination of a historic scientific success: the ability to vaccinate the country in just a matter of three or four more months, Dr. Walensky said on Wednesday. How this plays out is up to us. The next three months are pivotal.

And President Biden on Wednesday criticized officials in several states, including Texas and Mississippi, for lifting mask mandates, describing their actions as Neanderthal thinking and insisting that it was a big mistake for people to stop wearing masks.

Ms. Ivey issued a statewide mask order last summer when the number of cases in the state soared less than three months after she eased restrictions at the end of April. The mask mandate has drawn criticism from members of her own party. She extended it in January when the state was seeing a second surge of cases.

On Thursday, she said she planned to wear her mask around others, even after the statewide over was lifted. She urged residents to use common sense and do the same thing.

Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio, a Republican, is also taking a more measured approach. He said he will lift all public health measures once coronavirus cases drop to 50 or fewer new cases per 100,000 people over two weeks.

Mr. DeWine put the numbers in context: On Dec. 3, Ohio was at 731 cases per 100,000 people over two weeks; by Feb. 3, that number dropped to 445 and to 179 per 100,000 on Thursday.

This is our path back, he said in a news conference Thursday. We are in the last few miles of what has been a grueling marathon.

The chapel at Continental Funeral Home was once a place where the living remembered the dead. Now the pews, chairs and furniture have been pushed aside to make room, and the dead far outnumber the living.

On a Thursday afternoon last month in Continentals chapel in East Los Angeles, across the street from a 7-Eleven, there were four bodies in cardboard boxes.

And two bodies in open coffins, awaiting makeup.

And seven wrapped in white and pink sheets on wheeled stretchers.

And 18 in closed coffins where the pews used to be.

And 31 on the shelves of racks against the walls.

The math numbed the heart as much as the mind 62 bodies.

Elsewhere at Continental in the hallways beyond the chapel, in the trailers outside there were even more.

I live a nightmare every day, said Magda Maldonado, 58, the owner of the funeral home. Its a crisis, a deep crisis. When somebody calls me, I beg them for patience. Please be patient, I say, thats all Im asking you. Because nothing is normal these days.

Funeral homes are places America often prefers to ignore. As the coronavirus pandemic surged in Los Angeles in recent months, the industry went into disaster mode, quietly and anonymously dealing with mass death on a scale for which it was unprepared and ill-equipped. Like those in Queens and Brooklyn in the spring or South Texas in the summer, funeral homes in parts of Los Angeles have become hellish symbols of Covid-19s toll.

Continental has been one of the most overwhelmed funeral homes in the country. Its location at the center of Southern Californias coronavirus spike, its popularity with working-class Mexican and Mexican-American families who have been disproportionately affected by Covid-19, its decision to expand its storage capacity all have combined to turn the day-to-day into a careful dance of controlled chaos. For more than six weeks, a reporter and a photographer were allowed by Ms. Maldonado, her employees and the relatives of those who died to document the inner workings of the mortuary and the heartache of funeral after funeral after funeral.

Beverly Hills has had 32 deaths. Santa Monica has had 150. East Los Angeles an unincorporated part of Los Angeles County that is one of the largest Mexican-American communities in the United States has had 388.

With more than 52,000 virus-related deaths, California has recorded the most of any state but about average per capita. At Continental, the brutal reality of the death toll hits the gut first, the eyes second.

GLOBAL ROUNDUP

Austrian officials will carry out a mass vaccination drive in the western district of Schwaz in the hopes of stabilizing the alpine area, which has been battered by a surge in new coronavirus infections driven in part by the variant B.1.351, first identified in South Africa.

The pilot program in Austria is the first such inoculation drive in the European Union. Like most of the rest of the bloc, the country is lagging behind some other wealthy nations such as Britain, Israel and the United States in its vaccine rollout. Only 5 percent of residents in the alpine state of Tyrol, which includes Schwaz, have received at least one shot.

All residents above the age of 16 will be able to get free vaccinations when the drive begins next week. The European Union has allocated 100,000 extra doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for the area near the western Austrian city of Innsbruck, which is home to about 86,000 people.

Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said on Wednesday that the effort would be our chance to eradicate the variant in the region of Schwaz.

The infection rate in the broader Tyrol region has declined from its peak of about 800 cases per 100,000 people over a seven-day period in November to just over 100 per 100,000 in the past week. But the German government closed its side of the border with the area on Wednesday night when it became clear that a high percentage of those infections were caused by the B.1.351 variant.

On Thursday, Mr. Kurz traveled to Israel where, together with Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen of Denmark, he planned to speak with experts about collaborating on future vaccines.

In other news from around the world:

The state of So Paulo, Brazil, will head into its toughest restrictions yet this weekend, Gov. Joo Doria told reporters on Wednesday, as cases surge in the region. All bars, restaurants and nonessential stores will close until at least March 19, according to The Associated Press. The restrictions come as the country grapples with a concerning new variant that has lashed the Amazonian city of Manaus, in the northwest, and is spreading to other places. Brazil recorded its highest single-day toll of the pandemic this week.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand said that a snap lockdown imposed last week on the countrys largest city, Auckland, would end on Sunday morning. Social gatherings will be capped at 100 people and other restrictions will remain in place. The lockdown was imposed after the authorities discovered an untraceable case. They have since conducted more than 50,000 tests and traced more than 6,000 contacts.

Japan plans to extend its state of emergency for the Tokyo metropolitan area until March 21, even as it prepares to lift that declaration in six other prefectures, the national broadcaster, NHK, reported on Friday. The restrictions in greater Tokyo, which include an order for restaurants and bars to close by 8 p.m., had been scheduled to end on Sunday.

Germanys independent vaccine panel has said that the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine can be used on people 65 and over, reversing earlier guidance. Although the European drug regulator authorized use of the shots in January, the German panel had initially refused to recommend the vaccine because it had not been tested enough in that age group. Because Germany is still focusing its vaccination drive on those over 80, much of the AstraZeneca doses had lingered in storage.

Hungary announced on Thursday that it would introduce a new round of restrictions next week, with some schools closed and nonessential stores shuttered, to combat a sharp rise in coronavirus cases. The announcement comes as a blow to Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who had been vocal about his hopes for the country to begin reopening this month.

France on Thursday vowed to vaccinate at least 10 million people by mid-April as the government, still stopping short of a nationwide lockdown, extended restrictions on movements and gatherings to areas in the country where there have been surges in local cases. So far, only about 3.1 million people, or 4.7 percent of the countrys population, have received a first injection, and only 1.7 million people, or 2.5 percent of the population, have been fully vaccinated, which puts France behind other European countries in the vaccination rollout. Jean Castex, the prime minister, said at a news conference that starting in mid-April, all people ages 50 to 74 would be eligible for the vaccine, regardless of pre-existing health conditions.

Albee Zhang contributed research.

One in 10 children hospitalized with Covid-19 at four New York area hospitals last spring and summer developed acute kidney injury, a new study has found. The rate was even higher among children also found to have a serious inflammatory condition associated with Covid-19: almost one in five of them experienced sudden kidney injury.

Children with the inflammatory condition and kidney injury frequently had poor heart function and stayed in the hospital for longer, the researchers found. The study, published in the journal Kidney International, was carried out by investigators at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, which is part of Northwell Health.

Acute kidney injury, or acute kidney failure, develops rapidly. It occurs when the kidneys stop working properly and cannot filter waste from the blood. The condition is seen most commonly in critically ill patients, and it can be fatal. It is treated with fluids, medications and dialysis.

The researchers reviewed the medical records of 152 children under age 18 with Covid-19 who were admitted to four Northwell Health hospitals from March 9 to Aug. 13. Among them were 55 children who had the inflammatory condition, called multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, or MIS-C.

Acute kidney injury is known to be a complication of Covid-19 disease in adults; another Northwell study found that the condition was diagnosed in over one-third of adult patients hospitalized with Covid-19. But less is known about how often kidney injury occurs in children.

Estimates of the incidence in children have varied from as low as 1 percent, in China, to as high as 44 percent, as reported in a preliminary multicenter study at 32 hospitals in the United States.

In the new study, the most common first symptoms for children with acute kidney injury were gastrointestinal, such as diarrhea and vomiting, the report said. The injury resolved in most of the children by the time they were discharged from the hospital.

Black children appeared to be at nearly three times the risk of developing acute kidney injury, researchers said. But the number of children in the study was small, and investigators were not able to tease out the effects of socioeconomic status, pre-existing conditions or other factors.

Pediatricians treating children after a hospitalization for Covid-19 may need to check their blood pressure and urine regularly, the researchers said. An episode of acute kidney injury may increase the chances of kidney disease in the future.

This informs care down the road, said Dr. Abby Basalely, the papers first author, a pediatric nephrologist who is an investigator at the Feinstein Institutes. Thinking about whether there were kidney injuries sometimes falls to the wayside, but it may be an important thing to follow up on.

Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is donating his three-dimensional model of the coronavirus to the Smithsonians National Museum of American History.

I wanted to pick something that was really meaningful to me and important because I used it so often, Dr. Fauci said in an interview on Wednesday about his decision to give the model to the museum.

The model, which he said was made with a 3-D printer at the National Institutes of Health, is a blue sphere studded with spikes replicating the spiked proteins that can latch onto cells in our airway, allowing the virus to slip inside. Dr. Fauci said he had often used it as a visual aid when briefing members of Congress and former President Donald J. Trump about the virus.

Its a really phenomenally graphic way to get people to understand, he said.

Dr. Fauci announced the donation and showed off the model as he was being awarded the museums Great Americans medal on Tuesday for his leadership of the nations Covid-19 response and his contributions to the fights against other infectious diseases, such as AIDS. The model will become part of the museums national medicine and science collection, Smithsonian officials said.

The National Museum of American History said its curators have been collecting items from the pandemic for a future exhibition, called In Sickness and in Health, that will examine more than 200 years of medicine in the U.S. including Covid-19.

Dr. Fauci said he could see himself donating other items to museums and institutions in the future, whether from his time managing the countrys response to the coronavirus pandemic or from his leadership of federal efforts to combat H.I.V., SARS, the 2009 swine pandemic, MERS and Ebola.

I think when you reach a certain stage you have things that are more valuable to the general public than they are to you keeping them, he said.

China is requiring some travelers arriving from overseas to receive an invasive anal swab test as part of its coronavirus containment measures, a move that has outraged and shocked several foreign governments.

Japanese officials said on Monday that they had formally asked China to exempt Japanese citizens from the test, adding that some who had received it complained of psychological distress. And the United States State Department last month said it had registered a protest with the Chinese government after some of its diplomats were forced to undergo anal swabs, though Chinese officials denied that.

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Covid-19: U.S. Vaccination Pace Increases to 2 Million Doses a Day - The New York Times

Empty shelves at a Target in Burbank, Calif., on March 14, 2020. Many people across the U.S. are approaching the one-year anniversary of the moment they went into lockdown and realized life as they knew it had changed. Amy Sussman/Getty Images hide caption

Empty shelves at a Target in Burbank, Calif., on March 14, 2020. Many people across the U.S. are approaching the one-year anniversary of the moment they went into lockdown and realized life as they knew it had changed.

It has been nearly a year since much of the U.S. entered coronavirus-related lockdowns. For many people, they're approaching the anniversary of when they realized that life as they knew it was being fundamentally altered from how it had been a month, a week or even a day earlier.

The work-from-home era began. Bare grocery store shelves, empty subway cars, the absence of rush-hour traffic all seemed like post-apocalyptic scenes. Things that people often took for granted like hugs, seeing friends at birthday parties, dinners out together and midday coffee runs with colleagues were no longer considered safe and harmless as they had been before.

Professional sports leagues canceled or postponed entire seasons, and celebrities like Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson announced they had tested positive for the coronavirus.

Around the world, there was still so much unknown about the coronavirus and so much uncertainty about how life would look in two weeks let alone one year later.

As we approach the anniversary of the World Health Organization officially declaring the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic, NPR Weekend Edition host Lulu Garcia-Navarro asked her Twitter followers to use #TheMoment to share when they realized that things were going to be different where they were and what they were thinking when they realized that a shift was happening.

Thousands of responses poured in. We've collected some of those replies and are sharing them below. To share your memory from a year ago, use the hashtag #TheMoment on Twitter or email us at nprcrowdsource@npr.org with the words "The Moment" in the subject line.

For many people, the moment they realized they were entering pandemic life happened in the aisles of their grocery store as they stocked up on nonperishable food or found complete sections wiped out. Did you cook those dried beans? Try, and fail, to find hand sanitizer and toilet paper?

Child care and the blur between work and home life represented the moment for countless others. Many people shared stories of their kids coming home from school, day care or college for what was supposed to be two weeks and ended up being many months instead.

Teachers also shared moments and scenes from empty classrooms. Even today, many school districts remain fully or partially remote.

Live events, including sports and music, were where some people realized that their lives were changing and they wouldn't be able to be back in that setting for a long while.

For others, small gatherings with their friends and family were the last "normal" moments they had. Some people didn't go through with their events as planned but instead began what would become a trend: household-only events or socially distanced hangouts.

Doctors also shared when they realized that the task before them and the volume of patients they were about to see were dramatically changing.

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1 Year Of COVID-19: People Share When They Realized Life Was Changing - NPR

Dr. Anthony Fauci called all three U.S. coronavirus vaccines highly efficacious. NBC

Dr. Anthony Fauci has urged Americans not to turn their nose up at the COVID-19 vaccine theyre offered, and said all three vaccines currently available to Americans are highly efficacious in the battle against the coronavirus pandemic.

The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said people should take the single-shot Johnson & Johnson JNJ, -2.64% COVID-19 vaccine if thats what they are offered. Speaking on NBCs Meet the Press on Sunday, the veteran immunologist said, If you look at the efficacy against severe disease, its greater than 85%, and theres been no hospitalizations or deaths in multiple countries, even in countries that have the variants.

People are not given a choice between vaccines, but have raised questions about the different efficacy rates. Be careful when you try to parse this percent versus that percent, Fauci added. The only way you know one versus the other is if you compare them head-to-head, and they were not compared head-to-head. They were compared under different circumstances. All three of them are really quite good, and people should take the one thats most available today.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration released the results of its trial of the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine, and found the vaccine to be safe and effective. An FDA advisory committee vote 22-0 in favor of the regulator authorizing the vaccine on Friday. I think people need to get vaccinated as quickly, and as expeditiously, possible, Fauci said. I would go to a place that had J&J. I would have no hesitancy whatsoever to take it.

The single-dose J&J vaccine had an overall efficacy rate of about 66% in the Phase 3 clinical trial, and the U.S. arm of the trial showed an efficacy rate of about 72% and of 85% when protecting against severe or critical disease. Pfizer PFE, -0.98% and German partner BioNTech SEs BNTX, -2.94% two-dose vaccine has showed 95% efficacy. Meanwhile, Moderna MRNA, +4.33% said itstwo-dose vaccine was about 94% effective.

As of Sunday, 49.8 million people in the U.S. had received their first coronavirus vaccine dose and 24.8 million people in the U.S. had received two doses, according to the CDC. The U.S. has had 28.6 million infections in total, and 513,065 fatalities, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University. In total, 114 million people have been infected by the virus worldwide, and there have been 2.5 million COVID-related deaths around the world.

Fauci has repeatedly said that if the U.S. achieves 70% to 85% of the population vaccinated that would equate to good herd immunity, and the country should start to see a return to normality by the fall. That, of course, may depend on individuals age, circumstances and underlying conditions. You now have three highly efficacious vaccines, for sure, theres no doubt about that, particularly with the recent results from J&J, the doctor said on Sunday.

Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, echoed Faucis sentiments in a conversation with NPR last week. What Ive been saying to my family is, as soon as the J&J vaccine is authorized, if thats what you can get, you should get it as soon as its your turn in line, he said, noting that the J&J vaccine was tested in different contexts to the other vaccines the U.S., some Latin American countries and South Africa which had different mutations.

So that 66% number really represents an amalgamation of a variety of different clinical trials. Moderna and Pfizer were not tested in those circumstances, Jha told the radio show All Things Considered on NPR. And even if you just look at the U.S. data, the Johnson & Johnson number then starts getting much closer to the Moderna and Pfizer numbers. He also pointed out that the J&J vaccine can be stored in most refrigerators.

Jha also pointed out some key advantages to the J&J vaccines authorization in the U.S. The two-shot Pfizer vaccine is particularly hard to manage in, lets say, rural settings, hard-to-reach places, doable, but harder. J&J vaccine much, much easier on that front. There are also certain people who may just decide they would rather get a single shot than two shots and, you know, that may also influence who ends up getting what.

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Dr. Fauci on J&Js COVID-19 vaccine: I would have no hesitancy whatsoever to take it - MarketWatch

The winter surge of COVID-19 brutalized much of Los Angeles County, sending case rates and deaths skyrocketing for weeks.

But in some neighborhoods, the pandemics wrath was barely felt.

In West Hollywood, Malibu and Playa del Rey, infection rates actually fell, or increased much less than elsewhere, according to a Times data analysis of more than 300 neighborhoods and cities across the county.

Those communities relative good fortune can be explained by some obvious demographic factors, such as Malibus low housing density and West Hollywoods large population of singles able to work from home.

But residents and city officials also point to other factors they believe helped keep the pandemic under control: sea breezes, easy access to open space for exercising, a strong culture of mask compliance and, crucially, limited contact with other people.

I am keenly aware that I am in the minority of people, said Shayna Moon, a project manager for a technology company who works from home in Playa del Rey, where case rates declined during the surge. So few people have been protected in the way that people in my age and income bracket and education have been.

The data analysis underscores the wrenching inequities unveiled by the pandemic in L.A. County and beyond.

Some areas the Eastside, eastern San Fernando Valley, South L.A. and southeastern part of the county have been devastated by the coronavirus. Many of these are low-income communities with a high number of residents who are essential workers, putting their lives at risk at supermarkets, manufacturing firms and other businesses. They are far more likely to live in overcrowded conditions, bringing the coronavirus home from work and spreading it among the household.

Hard-hit areas lack the assets vast recreational open space and a population with the economic means to stay home, get goods delivered and work remotely of affluent communities that fared better. It was not just living in sprawling single-family homes rather than denser apartments that made the difference, but additional economic and lifestyle factors.

When taken as a whole, these factors paint a tale of two surges showing that the luxuries of location and privilege play an important role in ones ability to avoid the coronavirus.

This story, which examined weekly case rates between Nov. 15 and Jan. 15, is about some of the places the holiday surge passed over.

Masked visitors to the Malibu Pier, which features shops, fishing and restaurants open for outdoor dining.

(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

In the courtyard of a Malibu shopping plaza last week, Renee Henn, 27, sat on a bench in the sun as people milled around sipping coffee, chatting over lunch at physically distanced tables and popping into a Pilates studio.

Henn, who lives in a house near the beach with her father and his girlfriend, has been able to work remotely for a local tech company during the pandemic. She said lack of density, lifestyle factors and even the Malibu climate could help explain the areas relatively tame COVID-19 numbers.

Were near the water, and the sea air heals, she said. Everybody is outside all the time.

While L.A. Countys coronavirus case rate exploded by 450% during the surge, the case rate for the city of Malibu only doubled. That places it near the top of the list of communities least affected by the surge.

Pricey real estate may have helped to insulate Malibu. The median home value in the seaside community is $2 million, according to census data, and many of the essential workers at restaurants, grocery stores and other businesses in its compact commercial district live outside the area.

The citys affluent residents were able to pivot to working remotely soon after the pandemic started, and most City Hall services and meetings immediately transitioned to online.

A lot of people in Malibu were able to adjust to working from home, said the citys mayor, Mikke Pierson, and I think it made a huge difference compared to all the people that had to head out on 9-to-5 jobs that required them to be out among other people.

Pierson noted that Malibu does not have nursing homes or long-term care facilities (although there have been efforts to establish some), which have been hubs for outbreaks of the virus.

But as a tourist destination, Malibu poses some risks. With up to 15 million visitors a year, Malibu considers crowding on beaches and trails to be a real concern during the pandemic, said city spokesman Matt Myerhoff.

To encourage healthy behavior, the City Council in November passed an ordinance requiring the use of masks. It is enforced with a $50 fine that can be avoided if the person in violation complies immediately. The city also placed digital signage along highways encouraging the use of face coverings in public.

The city has been using all of its communications channels to repeat and reinforce the [Los Angeles County] public health officials safety recommendations [and] health orders, Myerhoff said.

Additionally, the area has plenty of open space. Julia Bagnoli, 36, lives in an Airstream in the woods, she said, in the hilly area of Topanga just east of Malibu. She has a number of jobs including alcohol treatment counseling and teaching yoga at a childrens school but her primary occupation is Vedic astrology, which she has been able to practice remotely throughout the pandemic.

Compared with her woodsy home, the city is just more crowded, she said while playing with her puppy Usha at a shopping plaza on Pacific Coast Highway. She noted that there are only about 10,000 people in Topanga and fewer than 14,000 in Malibu. Theres like 14,000 people in a four-block radius in Hollywood. Were just more spread out.

Cars stream through the intersection of La Cienega Boulevard and Holloway Drive in West Hollywood.

(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

West Hollywood, in some ways, would seem a prime candidate as a superspreader locale. The city jams 36,000 people into less than 2 square miles.

But while other densely populated areas in the county, including parts of South L.A. and the San Gabriel Valley, saw coronavirus case rates skyrocket by more than 1,000% during the surge, West Hollywood saw its cases climb by only 46%.

The main difference: household size. West Hollywood is a place where many residents live alone, according to city data. And many of the areas residents have been able to work from home throughout the pandemic.

Those options are off the table for many of the essential workers and people who depend on multigenerational housing in parts of L.A. that were hit hard by the surge.

Dex Thompson, a 33-year-old actor, said he is the sole occupant of his house near the busy intersection of Fairfax Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard and has been going on Zoom auditions since the start of the pandemic. Even the decision to audition has been deliberate, he said.

Theres a little bit of narcissism here, Thompson said of West Hollywood, as he snacked on sushi and beet juice outside Whole Foods. Everyone feels a little important, like, Im about to be somebody, and youre not, so am I going to risk my life for you or for this opportunity?

A sign of encouragement shines on the Santa Monica Boulevard median in West Hollywood.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

That luxury of housing, work and choices has, in many ways, been a determining factor amid the pandemic.

Lisa Cera, a stylist, said she and her business partner have managed to keep their business afloat by working out of her apartment.

Like Thompson, she is the sole occupant of her home, which is around the corner from West Hollywoods commercial corridor. She has three interns two of whom work remotely and is tested for the coronavirus any time she has to step onto a film set.

Although Cera has friends on the East Coast who have contracted COVID-19, she said she didnt know anyone in West Hollywood who has had it.

Keeping fit may have helped her and others in her neighborhood to stay healthy during the pandemic, she said. She hikes in Runyon Canyon almost every day and is careful to pull her mask tighter when someone gets close to her on the popular trail.

Though ocean breezes and gourmet juices may seem like less-than-quantifiable factors, there is a case to be made for their correlation to health and avoidance of COVID-19.

Lifelong, systemic lack of access to primary healthcare and nutrition, as well as environmental factors like pollution, can contribute to a higher likelihood of illness and death from the virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Many of those factors have long plagued the poorer, denser and more diverse parts of the county that were hit hardest during the surge.

West Hollywoods network of social programs may have also made a difference. The city provided free grocery and meal delivery for vulnerable residents, expanded assistance for renters and small businesses and developed advanced technological outreach and communication efforts, according to city spokeswoman Lisa Belsanti.

Additionally, West Hollywood, like Malibu, passed an ordinance requiring the use of masks in public.

Some residents said the combination of factors worked.

Were a small city, said Douglas, 49, a real estate developer who declined to give his last name. West Hollywood is good at communicating policies and getting the information out.

In Playa del Rey, an affluent beachfront neighborhood near Los Angeles International Airport, the pandemic has barely registered.

In fact, infection rates declined by 25% during the two-month period identified by The Times.

The area in the heart of Silicon Beach doesnt have Malibus spaciousness, but it seemed to have demographic advantages. The coastal community is largely residential, with a mix of single-family homes and apartments, and it has fewer crowded households than most neighborhoods and cities in the county, according to a Times review of data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Its also among the most affluent and has a high percentage of white-collar workers, meaning many presumably have the advantage of working from home.

Moon, the project manager and a Midwest transplant to the neighborhood, has been cautious about following public health guidelines, she said, expressing gratitude that her employer has allowed her to work from home since April.

Moon said she doesnt step foot outside her apartment without a mask and rarely ventures farther than neighborhood groceries and drugstores.

I assume very little risk on a daily basis. Ive basically been insulated from it because of the demographic that Im in, she said.

Perry Chung walks through the popular commercial center of Playa del Rey with a coffee from Playa Provisions.

(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

But the public health precautions such as stay-at-home orders and intermittent bans on indoor and outdoor dining have taken their toll on the neighborhood.

At Playa Provisions, a well-known eatery just off the beach, business is down by 75%.

We love being that go-to staple and dependable location for people to come, said Brooke Williamson, the restaurants co-owner and co-chef. Every moment of this has been so painful.

She and her staff never relaxed their safety precautions, even as the neighborhood fared better than other parts of the county, she said.

I tried not to think about the area not being dangerous. I always treated my restaurant and staff and family as if we were in the highest-risk areas to try to avoid being relaxed in any way.

While Williamson talked, more than a dozen people walked by her restaurant. All wore masks.

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Some parts of L.A. avoided the winter COVID-19 surge - Los Angeles Times

Dale Stern(Photo: Submitted by Andrew Stern)

This obituary is part of We Will Remember, a series about those weve lost to the coronavirus.

Dale Stern, anamputee from Warren,used his talents to help design handicap-accessible vehicles and prostheses before he was laid off as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The computer-aided design engineerdied at Beaumont Hospital inRoyal Oak on Nov. 21 after becoming ill with the coronavirus.

Stern, 47, was a graduate of North Farmington High School who returned to school in his 30s to create a better life forhimself and his daughter, according to his brother Andrew Stern. He earned an associate degreein CAD Design and a bachelor's degreein construction management from ITT Tech.

Dale Stern at a concert with daughter Dena.(Photo: Submitted by Andrew Stern)

Stern, who lost his left leg below the knee to diabetes in 2017, loved Mustangs and enjoyed working on them. He hadjust completed building a 1988 Mustang when he lost his leg and could no longer drive a manual transmission. Hewas forced to sell the carafter driving it only once.

He had the gift of gab and could make friends wherever he went, said Andrew Stern,who recalled that his brother loved music, live concerts and meeting people. He was never content sitting around.

Dale Stern with the band Super Bob.(Photo: Submitted by Andrew Stern)

Stern found out he had COVID-19 on Oct. 31. He was lethargic and had a headache that grew so intense heasked his older brother to take him to the ER. He was admitted to the hospital, where he stayed until his death.

Stern leaves to cherish his memorydaughter Dena; siblingsAric, Andrew and Samantha,and his former wife, Terra Letzer.

If you have a family member or close friend who has died from COVID-19 and you would like to share their story, please visit our memorial wall and select Share a story.

Brendel Hightower is an assistant editorat the Detroit Free Press.Contact her at bhightower@freepress.com.

Read or Share this story: https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2021/02/28/warren-amputee-helped-others-disabilities-died-covid-19/4450835001/

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Warren amputee who helped others with disabilities died of COVID-19 - Detroit Free Press