Tag: coronavirus

3rd case of coronavirus confirmed in Minnesota, this time in Anoka County

A person in their 30s contracted the virus, health officials say.

A third presumptive case of the novel coronavirus has been confirmed in Minnesota, with the Department of Health saying it involved an Anoka County resident.

“The case is an Anoka County resident in their 30s who was likely exposed through contact with international travelers,” a release from the department said. “The patient developed symptoms Feb. 28 and sought health care March 9.”

The patient is in critical condition and hospitalized. The first two cases involved persons in Ramsey and Carver counties, with both being quarantined in their homes.  Continue reading.

The markets are sending a message about coronavirus: The recession risk is real

Washington Post logoThe stock market drop is ugly. But one big threat to the economy is a slew of defaults — both personal and business.

Pick just about any market — stocks, bonds, oil — and it’s sending a signal that investors around the world think there’s a high probability of a recession.

J.P. Morgan sent around a note to clients late last week saying markets were indicating a 90 percent chance of a recession, a term that generally means six straight months of economic contraction. The picture looks worse now, especially in the bond market. Last week, Wall Street panicked when the yield on a marquee government bond — the U.S. 10-year Treasury — fell below 1 percent. That had never happened before. Now that yield is below 0.5 percent, a jaw-dropping situation that didn’t even occur during the Great Recession.

What the heck is going on? The world economy essentially just got a one-two punch to the face. The coronavirus is a serious health crisis that’s morphing into an economic crisis as people stay home, cancel trips and stop spending on about everything except hand sanitizer and toilet paper. On top of that, Saudi Arabia basically launched an oil price war on Sunday. The world has a glut of oil right now and the Saudis decided not to scale back production after Russia flooded the market with extra oil. So oil prices plunged 30 percent Sunday, the largest one-time drop since the 1991 Gulf War. Oil is now trading around $30 a barrel, a price most energy companies outside Saudi Arabia can’t survive on, including many in the United States.

Live updates: Israel requires two-week quarantine for international arrivals; N.Y.-N.J. Port Authority head tests positive

Washington Post logoA new oil price war sparked by the coronavirus sent shock waves through financial markets, with stocks tumbling around the world as more countries implemented measures to contain the outbreak and the United States’ tally of known infections passed 500.

In New York, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) said on Monday that the head of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Rick Cotton, tested positive for the virus and was being placed on quarantine.

In Israel, the government announced that anyone entering the country from abroad will be quarantined for 14 days. Continue reading.

Local public health departments are key to Minnesota’s coronavirus fight — many are already stretched thin

Minnesota’s local public health departments are the first line of defense against COVID-19 and many are understaffed and lacking funding to deal with widespread coronavirus infections.

“We certainly could use some more help,” Gina Adasiewicz, deputy public health director for Dakota County, said Friday after a group of local health officials met to discuss virus preparations with U.S. Rep. Angie Craig.

After the state’s first case of coronavirus was discovered Friday in Ramsey County, Minnesota will be reliant on local public health departments in its COVID-19 fight. During a pandemic, local public health workers are responsible for monitoring infected patients, making sure people under quarantine have supplies and helping medical providers slow the spread of the virus. Continue reading.

Health agencies’ funding cuts challenge coronavirus response

Washington Post logoKaren Koenemann wakes up at dawn, rubs the sleep out of her eyes and immediately starts tapping away on her iPhone from her bed. The anxious emails that began to sprinkle in a few weeks ago are now a daily deluge for the public health director for Pitkin County, Colo.

Since the coronavirus reached U.S. soil, thousands of local health officials across the country have been working nonstop and scrambling to prepare. Pitkin County has not had a case, at least not yet, but Koenemann has helped businesses decide whether to cancel conferences, walked leaders through potential school closures, pored over response plans with the hospital in the county seat of Aspen. And it is exhausting.

When an outbreak hits, public health departments are America’s front line of defense. They investigate the infected and trace their contacts with other people, take passengers’ temperatures at the airport, harangue the public to wash their hands. They advise local leaders on whether to cancel school, and they find facilities to isolate the sick from the healthy. Continue reading.

Anxiety in an aging Congress as coronavirus marches across U.S.

“There’s a lot of concern that members could bring it home,” a senior Democratic leadership aide says as offices discuss recessing Congress.

WASHINGTON — Members of Congress are becoming increasingly anxious about coronavirus, and there is growing pressure on leadership to take steps to protect lawmakers — even potentially recessing for a period of weeks — two Democratic congressional sources said Sunday.

Multiple sources said anxiety was on the rise among lawmakers as more cases are reported and the virus spreads.

Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., said he will close his office in Washington and will self-quarantine at home in Arizona for 14 days after he came into “extended” contact with a person who is hospitalized with COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. They came into contact at the recent Conservative Political Action Conference in Oxon Hill, Maryland, Gosar said. Continue reading.

Minnesota House quickly approves funding for coronavirus response

House DFL logoSAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA — The Minnesota House of Representatives today voted to approve funding for the state’s public health response to COVID-19, commonly referred to as the coronavirus. The first presumed positive case of the condition was identified on Friday in Ramsey County, with the second following Sunday in Carver County.

“We all recognize the urgency of acting quickly to ensure our public health professionals have the resources they need to respond if COVID-19 spreads,” said Rep. Tina Liebling (DFL – Rochester), the House Health and Human Service Finance Division chair and the legislation’s chief House author. “The Department of Health is well prepared to test for the condition, and officials are working closely with hospitals, clinics and other care providers. The investments lawmakers approved today will help ensure the coordinated response process can be as seamless as possible.”

The legislation transfers nearly $21 million to the state’s public health response contingency account to address COVID-19 from the state’s general fund. The bill also includes flexibility to ensure the state is effectively able to address any future strain of the virus. Continue reading “Minnesota House quickly approves funding for coronavirus response”

Why public health officials sound more worried about the coronavirus than the seasonal flu

The spread of the new coronavirus, which has infected over 80,000 people worldwide and resulted in the death of more than 3,000, has raised alarms around the world.

At the same time, the seasonal influenza, known as the flu, causes severe illness in between 3 million and 5 million people, with hundreds of thousands of deaths every year worldwide.

With so many fewer cases than the flu, what explains the dramatic response to COVID-19 and worry around the globe? And how would a person know whether seasonal influenza-like symptoms are COVID-19? Continue reading.

Squandered time: How the Trump administration lost control of the coronavirus crisis

Washington Post logoThe coronavirus had already begun to spiral out of control around the world when Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, during routine Senate testimony, made a surprising claim.

“As of today, I can announce that the CDC has begun working with health departments in five cities to use its flu surveillance network to begin testing individuals with flu-like symptoms for the Chinese coronavirus,” Azar said. “This effort will help see whether there is broader spread than we have been able to detect so far.”

But there were two major problems: The cities weren’t ready, and the tests didn’t work. Continue reading.

Trump officials unsure how many people tested for coronavirus

They also defended Trump’s claim that anyone can get tested.

Top federal health officials on Saturday said they don’t know how many people in the U.S. have been tested for coronavirus — or how many will need to be in the coming weeks.

The health officials, in an untelevised briefing at the White House, also defended President Donald Trump’s claim on Friday that anyone seeking a test can get one, even as state officials voice frustration with the availability of tests.

Federal government labs have tested specimens for 1,583 people, but the Trump administration does not have figures for the numbers of people tested at state and local labs, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn told reporters. They said said that 5,861 specimens have been tested across the country, but it’s not clear how many people that translates to because each test requires multiple specimens and people get multiple tests. Continue reading.