America logged its highest single-day coronavirus death total of the summer on Wednesday, as the toll from an earlier surge in cases in Sun Belt states continued to mount. At least 1,470 deaths were tallied on Wednesday, The New York Times reported. With the exception of three anomalous days this summer (when New York and Texas reported large numbers of backlogged COVID-19 deaths from unspecified days), that death total was the country’s highest since late May, the newspaper said. Wednesday’s deaths were concentrated in Sun Belt states that have witnessed dramatic coronavirus case spikes in June and July, the Times reported. Even as case counts have started to level off or drop in some of those states, deaths have stayed high. On Wednesday, more than 300 deaths were recorded in Texas, while more than 200 were confirmed in Florida. Arizona, California and Georgia all reported more than 100 COVID-19 deaths each, the newspaper said. For the past two weeks, the country has averaged more than 1,000 deaths per day, more than twice as many as recorded in early July. Because some people do not die until weeks after contracting the virus, death counts can remain high long after new cases start falling, the newspaper noted. Where did all the new cases start this summer? New data shows that many of the community outbreaks of coronavirus…  read on >

New data shows that many of the community outbreaks of coronavirus that have cropped up in the United States this summer have originated in restaurants and bars. In Louisiana, roughly a quarter of the state’s 2,360 cases since March that were outside of places like nursing homes and prisons had their origins in bars and restaurants, The New York Times reported. Meanwhile, 12% of new coronavirus cases in Maryland last month were traced to restaurants, while 9% of cases in Colorado have been traced to bars and restaurants, the newspaper said. Whether the infections started among workers or patrons is unclear, but the clusters concern health officials because many restaurant and bar employees are in their 20s and can silently fuel household transmissions, which have soared in recent weeks through the Sun Belt and the West, the Times reported. This summer, scores of restaurants, including ones in Nashville, Las Vega, Atlanta and Milwaukee, have had to close temporarily because of COVID-19 cases among employees, the Times reported. Texas and Florida also had to shut down bars following surges in new cases in those states. In a recent week in San Diego, 15 of the 39 new community cases were traced to restaurants. And in Washington, D.C., cases have climbed since the city reopened indoor dining, the newspaper reported. Indoor dining remains banned in New York…  read on >

Depression, anxiety and inactive lifestyles are all too common among college students, and a new study finds they may have escalated during the initial outbreak of COVID-19. Using a mix of smartphone data and online surveys from more than 200 students, researchers at Dartmouth College determined that the coronavirus pandemic had an immediate impact on the mental health of this particular undergraduate group. The students involved in the study were participating in a research program tracking mental health at the New Hampshire university. They reported spikes in depression and anxiety at the beginning of the pandemic in early March, just as the school pushed students to leave campus and begin remote learning. While their self-reported anxiety and depression lessened slightly later on in the semester, the study found that their overall anxiety and depression levels remained consistently higher than in previous years. “We observed a large-scale shift in mental health and behavior compared to the observed baseline established for this group over previous years,” said study author Jeremy Huckins, a lecturer at Dartmouth. In addition, around spring break period in mid-March, the students reported that their day-to-day lives were dramatically more sedentary than previous terms. “This was an atypical time for these college students. While spring break is usually a period of decreased stress and increased physical activity, spring break 2020 was stressful and confining…  read on >

Be careful that the COVID-19 information you’re getting is accurate and not opinion masquerading as the real McCoy, says the American College of Emergency Physicians. Watch out for bold claims and instant cures touted on social media or by friends. Get health and medical information from experts like the ACEP and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the physicians’ group says. “A troubling number of purported experts are sharing false and dangerous information that runs counter to the public health and safety guidelines endorsed by ACEP and the nation’s leading medical and public health entities,” said Dr. William Jaquis, president of the college. “This kind of misinformation can not only be harmful to individuals, but it hinders our nation’s efforts to get the pandemic under control,” he added in a college news release. You should know that there is no cure or vaccine for COVID-19. Scientists keep learning more about the virus and how to treat it. COVID-19 can be spread by anyone — even people who don’t think they’re infected. About 40% of those infected don’t have symptoms, but can spread the virus. The virus isn’t harmless, and its long-term effects are still being studied. Without a cure, the best defense is making smart choices and safe behaviors, the college says. “There are still many questions about COVID-19, but we know these…  read on >

The Trump Administration is weighing a new rule that would temporarily block an American citizen or legal permanent resident from returning to the United States from abroad if authorities believe the person might be infected with the coronavirus. President Donald Trump has already imposed sweeping rules that ban entry by foreigners into the United States, citing the risk of allowing the virus to spread from hot spots around the world. But so far those rules have not applied to American citizens and foreigners who have established legal residence here, The New York Times reported. Now, a draft regulation proposes giving the federal government the power to do so in individual, limited circumstances, the Times reported. Federal agencies have been asked to submit feedback on the proposal to the White House by Tuesday, the newspaper said. The draft of the proposal, parts of which were obtained by the Times, does state that any order blocking citizens and legal permanent residents must “include appropriate protections to ensure that no constitutional rights are infringed.” And it adds that citizens and legal residents cannot be blocked as an entire class of people, the newspaper reported. Whether the Trump administration has the legal authority to block citizens and permanent residents from returning to their own country is unclear, the Washington Post reported. But one official said the administration is contemplating…  read on >

MONDAY, Aug. 10, 2020 (HealthDay News) With millions of American children soon returning to school, a new study shows that at least 97,000 kids were infected with COVID-19 during the last two weeks of July. According to the new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association, at least 338,000 U.S. children had tested positive through July 30, The New York Times reported. That means that more than a quarter of those cases had come up positive in the second half of July alone. Already, some schools have tried to reopen and then had to order quarantines or close after COVID-19 cases were reported among students and staff, the Times reported. North Paulding High School in Georgia, which gained national attention last week after videos of crowded hallways made their way onto social media, announced Sunday it would switch to online instruction for Monday and Tuesday after at least nine coronavirus cases were reported there. In the new report, states in the South and West accounted for more than 7 of 10 infections. The count could be higher because the report did not include complete data from Texas and parts of New York State outside of New York City. Missouri, Oklahoma, Alaska, Nevada, Idaho and Montana were among the states with the highest percentage increase of child infections during that period,…  read on >