With the wave prevalence Omicron the increase in infections has made the situation of women even more dramatic families which include a person with severe disability because, consequently, the criticalities regarding theIntegrated home care (Adi). In Milan, but not only, there are no health workers And socio-educational to guarantee the care therapies to very fragile people. It is about essential services by subjects not self-sufficient who need it for live with dignity. A difficult condition already experienced and reported last June and throughout 2020. “We are experiencing a very difficult situation. As parents we are obliged to take care of our children to take the place of nurses or social and health workers (obs) ”. To report it to ilfattoquotidiano.it is Fortunato Nicolettivice president of the volunteer organization Nobody is excludedfather of a girl with a very rare genetic disease.

Integrated home care is added to municipal services which are not provided directly by the public and is provided on a Individual care plan (Pai) for people in situations of high fragility, such as inability to walk, non-portability at outpatient health facilities locals, housing conditions that guarantee the practicability of home care. The Adi was included in the Essential levels of assistance (Lea) in 2001. They are planned four levels assistance in relation to the client’s need and the level of intensity, complexity and duration of the intervention.

Care plans halved due to staff shortages – With the increase in infections they become positive and many health workers committed to this service are also in quarantine. And so the hours of home care for the severely disabled have been reduced. For example, it happened that some families, at the time of renewalhave seen each other change the Pai with half hoursbecause the supplying bodies (almost all private contractors) are no longer able to guarantee services. Often it is about cooperatives whose staff with the pandemic have in many cases decided to go to work elsewhere because they are better paid or because they are looking for better working conditions.

“It also fails to take charge of new babies with severe disabilities, they have not been taken care of in Milan for about 2 years due to lack of adequate staff ”, says Nicoletti. The system would work like this: the hospital reports to the ATS the person with severe disabilities, trains the caregiver and sends the patient home to protected resignation. The accredited body then sends thenurse / oss at home. However, the families contacted report, there is no continuity of care and relief to the caregiver.

“The Adi crisis exploded with the pandemic but it started earlier” – As reported by “No one is excluded“For over a year to competent regional bodies, but also to government bodies the Adi service which already suffered from major critical issues before the pandemic emergency, it went into crisis with it for various reasons. “The Lombard system provides that the Adi is supplied with the system of private-accreditedthis means that in periods of systemic crisis for example due to a health emergency, the health personnel used by the institutions (who are not contracted), can choose at any time not to carry out this task anymore without being obliged to stay ”, says Nicoletti.

But not only. The funds for the ADI are very few in relation to the need and this is linked to the previous point as operators are often attracted to higher remuneration to those perceived through the managing bodies and therefore migrate to as soon as possible hospitalsresidences or even the private profession. Finally, “a different level of disbursement has never been thought of with respect to the serious / very serious one care complexityremaining anchored to a prepackaged service that it could be suitable for everyone “. For Nicoletti “these major structural criticalities, combined with the emergencies of the last two years, are gradually leading to the collapse of both home and school care, leaving families more and more often to manage very heavy welfare burdens, but also to have to give up work as well as forgetting forever about relationships and sociability“.

“Before we had a nurse 2-3 times a week, now once a month” – Valentina Viti is the mother of a boy with a genetic syndrome and with multisensory disability, has been living in a wheelchair and with a tracheostomy since 2020. “Since there were no qualified nurses as parents, we became nurses. If I had had hours at home I would have used them for managing my son in school, where he is without nursing assistance and therefore I have to go there every day ”, he says. “From the end of 2020 a nurse went home 2-3 times a week, if all goes well now she goes once a month. For three years I have given up my previous job to follow my son. We are forced to stay at home with him to assist him, the temporary solution is to share the time to be with him with my husband but it is not the right way to manage my son “.

The hours of Physiotherapy, despite the fact that the neurologist has drawn up a plan that includes physiotherapy 5 times a week. “The health personnel we need are not there because many have moved to make vaccines, earning more than assisting the frail. I called 5 organizations in the Porta Romana area – Bocconi – says Valentina – but no one made me available qualified personnel. I also sent an email to the Lombardy Region and received no reply. We are abandoned ”.

A clear cut in assistance is denounced by Paola Albornozmother of a 7-year-old girl, with a disease in a chronic state and with 100% motor disability. She is enrolled in the second grade, which she attends with a reduced hours because of his condition. It has no autonomy. “In 2015 a nurse came home twice a day, over the years the assistance has been reduced to an intolerable situation”.

The daughter would be entitled to health care coverage of 7 days a week, but often the nurse is absent for whole days. She needs it to disinfect and put the bandages on the skin necessary for her very serious pathology. “You need daily interventions which unfortunately no longer exist, we are desperate. The nurse comes 1 hour and a half in the morning and that’s it ”, says the mother. “We parents have to do the medications left over in the afternoon. They almost never come on weekends “. This is a delicate job that should be done by two nurses. Paola concludes by saying that “I see worsen the clinical situation of my daughter due to a disservice and this is a terrible thing for a mother. They penalize a child who is already in a very critical situation ”.

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Do you think you live in a clean home? While most of you would like to respond in affirmation, the reality is that the most pristine homes have some dirty spots. These easily overlooked spaces are often hidden from the gauge of the residents and act as a hotbed for microbes and germs that can cause several diseases. The germophobe amongst you would be alarmed and intrigued to know that these spots hold on to dirt despite your regular cleaning practices. However, paying special attention to these places can help you attain a germ-free home. 5 areas that need additional effort to maintain cleanliness are listed below.Also Read – Christmas 2020: Mumbai Man Dressed as Santa Carries Out Sanitisation, Distributes Masks to The Needy

Can you keep track of who, when and how many times touches the doorknobs in your homes every day? Your family members, neighbours, guests, maids and servants and several other visitors touch the doorknobs in your house. While the front door is the most touched spot, the kitchen door, bathroom and bedroom doors and other door handles are also at the receiving end of countless bacterias and microbes through the numerous times they are touched. These door knobs make us their carriers when they stick on our hands while we use them and continue with our day to day affairs without sanitising our hands. Also Read – COVID-19 Infection Through Swimming Pools: As Unlock 5.0 Allows Pools to Reopen, Here’s What to do to Minimise Risk of Getting Coronavirus

How to clean Also Read – IIT Kanpur Develops UV Device to Disinfect Room in 15 Minutes

Either soap and water solution or disinfectant are effective cleaners of doorknobs. We must allow the solution to stay on the surface for around 5 minutes and then gently wipe them with a cloth.

While everyone attempts to clean the dishes, gas stoves and other storage items in the kitchen, one rarely attempts to clean the sinks. However, you must know that all our utensils find their way to the sink to get clean, and if it continues to be dirty, it will become the cradle of microbes and other germs.

How to clean

It is best to clean the sink after each use with soap-based dishwashing liquid/bar and wipe it down properly to keep it dry and free from germs.

Our ancestors were aware of the fallacies of having a washroom inside the homes, and thus most ancient civilisations had the concept of public baths. While most of you try to clean your toilets quite often, you forget to do the same in your shower area and the bathtubs. Thus, the space of your house where you cleanse yourself is in itself a hotbed of germs and microbes.

How to clean

Disinfect the bathtub or shower area regularly is possible with bleach-based cleaning liquids. You can use them on the floor alongside regular cleaners. Wiping down the faucets with a disinfecting liquid is another step that we may take to reduce the possibility of germ breeding. You must clean your washrooms and bathtubs regularly, just like you do with your toilets.

These spaces of your homes are often the breeding ground of microbes and germs. A regular cleaning routine is necessary to maintain clean toilets, and the frequency must increase if you have guests at home as the chances of germ build-up increases with their frequent use.

How to clean

Disinfecting the toilets is possible with bleach-based solutions and other specific cleaning agents specially manufactured for the purpose. It is always advisable to use washable towels or disposable sponges while cleaning your toilets as they remove the risk of cross-contamination that occurs with reuse.

• Remotes And Other Electronic Items

Electrical appliances, mobile phones and remotes are the most unimagined spots of germ transfer. However, their frequent use by more than one family member and at times by guests and others makes them a storehouse of microbes. In addition to these, our laptops and our PC keyboards are the most ignored spaces when it comes to cleaning, and hence they too are a hotbed of germ growth.

How to clean

Cleaning these items must be included in your list of daily chores. While alcohol-based disinfectants are most effective on electronic items, you may use a soft cloth dampened with a bleach-water solution to clean them.

Cleaning these hidden areas is necessary to achieve the highest level of cleanliness that every one of us desires. We should always consider getting our homes deep cleaned and disinfected by professional home cleaning and disinfecting service providers like the Urban Company. While we can try to maintain hygiene, these professionals add an extra layer of protection by using the most-appropriate disinfectants and cleaning agents for each part of the house. Their importance has further increased during the prevalent pandemic conditions.

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A major COVID outbreak at Ohio-based Sanoh America killed at least two workers and infected a third of the workforce of one of its plants, prompting the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to levy a wrist-slap fine on the company for not protecting its employees.

During an inspection last August at the beginning of the Delta surge, OSHA found that the company had dropped all its mitigation measures such as social distancing and mask wearing. Sixty-five employees had tested positive for the virus, and by the end of the month, about one-third of Sanoh America’s 270 workers in Findlay, Ohio, had contracted COVID. Five workers were hospitalized and two would tragically die.

For this criminal policy, OSHA slapped the company with a paltry fine of $26,527 and an order to enforce safety measures in the future. But there is no mechanism under this process to guarantee any mitigation measures will be put in place or followed.

The plant manager, James Kammer, went into immediate damage control, placing the blame on individual workers bringing COVID into the workplace. He even falsely claimed OSHA protocols were followed: “The facility’s COVID-19 prevention plan was implemented and functioning. After the outbreak across this community, employees’ COVID-19 infections soon subsided. We meet with OSHA, understand its enforcement position, and evaluate our appealing options.”

A Sanoh America warehouse (Credit: sanoh-america.com)

While the company is willing to burn through cash on corporate lawyers in order to dampen the fallout, rather than update the facility’s safety measures, the OSHA-imposed fine will not make a dent in the profit margins of Sanoh America, which has 10 manufacturing facilities across North America and brings in $280 million in yearly sales.

For the company, it is just a small price to pay for doing business. Since 2007, OSHA had to investigate the company at least six separate times for health and safety violations, mostly at facilities in Ohio.

In citing the company, OSHA has effectively put a price tag on priceless human life at $13,263 and some change. If OSHA were to fine every corporation that has violated safety measures at this current rate for the preventable deaths of about 870,000 people, a fine would be issued for about $11.5 billion, compared to the record $3 trillion in profits American corporations made last year.

The imposition of a tiny fine on a single small parts maker is an exception that proves the rule of OSHA allowing catastrophic outbreaks in auto plants and other workplaces without any consequences whatsoever. There can be no doubt that one element in the decision to levy fines against Sanoh was to deflect from public scrutiny of this record. Thus, Larry Johnson, the OSHA area director in Columbus, Ohio, declared in a press release: “Sanoh America’s failure to follow health and safety guidelines and its own company policies resulted in worker illnesses and death.” Then he said, “OSHA continues to enforce all standards applying to the coronavirus and holds employers accountable for failing to meet their obligations to minimize worker exposure to the coronavirus.”

Many autoworkers have died of COVID under the eyes of the US-based automakers and the pro-company United Auto Workers (UAW), including from massive outbreaks at plants many times larger than Sanoh America’s Findlay plant.

A full accounting of the number of infections and death is impossible because both the companies and the union have not released national figures. But at one plant, Stellantis’s Sterling Stamping Plant near Detroit where over 2,000 workers are employed, at least five workers died last from contracting COVID: Xavier Anderson, Kevin Railey, Omie Smith, Blair Alexander Braden, and Mark Bruce. Another worker, Terry Garr, died following an accident in the plant.

At Mack Trucks in Macungie, Pennsylvania, 829 workers have been COVID-positive out of a workforce of about 2,000. According to the company and the UAW, every worker has recovered, but Mack workers say at least three have died. One worker-confirmed death at Mack was William Dimitrovitsch.

A Mack Trucks worker wrote into the World Socialist Web Site describing the situation at the Macungie facility, which OSHA has never investigated: “We have no social distancing in the plant, the majority of workers don’t wear masks. … We were told back in 2020 there were protocols put in place for COVID. … 2 years later I have yet to see a COVID clean-up team disinfect an area after reports of someone infected with the virus. When someone is sent home there is no notification to other employees that work in the immediate area of contamination. … Since December 2021 we’ve lost 3 employees due to COVID.

According to a US Labor Department Office of the Inspector General (OIG) report issued in 2021, OSHA conducted 50 percent fewer on-site inspections and issued fewer than 300 COVID violations in 2020, even though complaints increased by 15 percent and state workplace safety agencies issued five times as many citations and fines as OSHA.

OSHA’s turning a blind eye at the overwhelming majority of workplaces and schools where COVID is spreading unchecked is in line with policy of “herd immunity” of first the Trump and then the Biden administration, from whom OSHA has taken its orders.

Once in office, Biden issued an executive order calling on OSHA to produce new mitigation guidelines for businesses to follow in an attempt to cover up Trump’s disastrous handling of the pandemic. But the order was only a set of half-measures without being backed by the force of law. In fact, corporations have no legal obligation to follow through on these new OSHA guidelines while they still routinely flout all health and safety measure with impunity. Today, there is no system in place to accurately track the number of infections in workplaces and schools, and management never notifies workers about infections in their area.

President Biden has also continued Trump’s executive order keeping meatpacking plants open by declaring them “critical infrastructure” under the Defense Production Act. Nearly 300 meatpacking workers have died over the course of the pandemic, according to figures compiled by the Food and Environment Reporting Network. The Biden administration is also reopening schools in spite of mass infections during the ongoing Omicron surge, even as schools struggle to function due to the scale of infections among teachers and staff.

OSHA has never investigated poorly ventilated schools, which have been major vectors of the disease, where dozens of children have tragically contracted the disease and died, along with the deaths of hundreds of educators and school workers.

Even with the most stringent safety measures put in place, however, workplaces and schools are still massive reservoirs for the spread of COVID. The full shutdown of non-essential businesses with full pay for those impacted, along with scientifically guided mitigation efforts such as contract tracing, quarantining, testing, and freely available N95 masks on a global scale, is needed to save lives.

Stay informed. Sign up to our Autoworker Newsletter.

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Originally Appeared Here

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, TX — Montgomery County Public Health District, in conjunction with the Montgomery County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, continues to encourage eligible populations to be fully vaccinated and receive a booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Those who have been vaccinated and/or boosted tend to have mild symptoms and the majority can recover at home. Need to find a vaccine or a vaccine booster shot? Click here for vaccine sites: https://www.vaccines.gov/.

If you are diagnosed with or exposed to COVID-19 , please follow the CDC guidance here: https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2021/s1227-isolation-quarantine-guidance.html.

MCPHD reports weekly on Tuesdays, but DSHS updates daily at this link: https://www.arcgis.com/apps/dashboards/45e18cba105c478697c76acbbf86a6bc.

Since our last report on 1/18/2022:

• Total cases of COVID-19 increased by 6,723 to 125,556. *Total cases include confirmed (PCR testing) and probable (antigen testing) cases.

• Deaths of Montgomery County residents have increased by 14 to 1,178 since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, according to data from DSHS.

• 268 confirmed cases of COVID-19 are currently hospitalized in Montgomery County. SETRAC data for regional hospitalizations can be found here: https://bit.ly/3jwhdiV.

Please note, DSHS is no longer posting active and recovered estimates for a number of reasons.

• They were estimates based on research from early in the pandemic on the proportion of people who required hospitalization and the length of time it took hospitalized and non-hospitalized people to resolve their symptoms.

• With changes in the virus, that proportion and timeline has changed, so the resulting calculations were no longer accurate.

• Plus, we now know the risk of transmitting the virus decreases before symptoms are completely resolved.

• Recovery estimates are less meaningful when people have gotten infected and recovered multiple times or may have recovered from one infection but not recovered from a second.

• In moving to providing annual data, there’s no straightforward way to assign active and recovered estimates to a year.

• There are no longer any state executive orders that rely on active or recovered cases.

The Testing Positivity Rate for Montgomery County has decreased to 33%, down from 38% last week.

Source: UT Health, School of Public Health

The COVID-19 dashboard for Montgomery County can be found here: https://coronavirus-response-moco.hub.arcgis.com/.

Do your part to slow the spread of COVID-19. The best way to protect yourself and those around you is to be vaccinated. You should also:

· Get tested if you feel sick.

· Avoid groups of people.

· Practice social distancing.

· Wear a mask in public (over your nose and mouth) or with others who live outside your household. Never share a mask with others.

· Wash your hands or use hand sanitizer frequently.

· Disinfect surfaces in your car and around your home.

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Originally Appeared Here

The Fairfield carrel was designed to help caregivers with young kids in tow better access their local library.
Photo: Chris Cunningham

Wrangling small children on daily errands is a uniquely difficult task — one that’s made especially challenging by the fact that most American institutions have little more to offer parents and caregivers in the way of support than a pile of grimy plastic toys in a corner on the floor. Libraries are, in general, more attuned to the needs of families. Still, it can be challenging for adults to, say, access computers with little kids in tow — something the staff of the Henrico County Public Library noticed and decided to attempt to solve when designing a new building back in 2019. “We kept seeing this problem with parents using the computer,” says Patty Conway, the community relations coordinator for the Richmond, Virginia-area library. “If they have a small child, they’d have to hold them on their knee and really struggle to balance their child-care needs with their needs to use the computer.”

This particular library’s local community — a predominantly Black suburban neighborhood with a high number of multigenerational households — happened to use the computers quite a bit. “They were seeing the highest usage of computers of any other facility in the county,” says interior designer Shannon Wray of Richmond-based Quinn Evans. “And in addition to that fact, they saw families from these multigenerational households all coming to the library together.” Working closely with the library staff, Wray’s team conceptualized a strikingly simple solution: a handsome wood carrel with a work space attached to a play space that can be latched shut to keep small children nearby, occupied, and safe.

A new public library in my area has these work stations for caregivers with babies! Maybe these are common in other places but Ive never seen anything like this before. pic.twitter.com/svmhWu7QbK

— Ali Faruk (@FamiliesFwdVA) January 22, 2022

The kid-friendly carrels now occupy the second floor of the Henrico County Public Library’s Fairfield Area branch, conveniently located near the children’s section. Each are lined with a simple vinyl cushion, the interior walls decorated with developmentally appropriate activities: a mirror set low to the ground for infants, interactive games for busy toddler hands, and a variety of holes perfect for playing peek-a-boo. To manufacture the carrels, Wray reached out to Michigan-based furniture company TMC, whose pieces she’d specified for other library projects. Since 1998, husband-and-wife team Blake Ratcliffe and Sherri Moore have helmed many custom collaborations with designers with an eye trained toward durability and sustainability — in this case, pairing colorful dyed-wood accents with a nontoxic sealant that can withstand heavy disinfecting regimens. With an open-source spirit befitting a library, the carrel design is not proprietary; TMC offers two versions for sale in a wide variety of configurations and finishes, and Ratcliffe — who calls the design “a real eureka moment” — has been floored by an outpouring of interest from all sectors.

The carrels were first designed for Henrico County Public Library in Virginia.
Photo: Chris Cunningham

Wray presented the Fairfield carrel to widespread acclaim at a library conference in March 2020, just before the widespread shutdown of public spaces, including libraries, coast to coast. But two years into the pandemic, as parents rigged their own work-from-home setups that have become, in many cases, more permanent than they’d like them to be, the concept resonates much more broadly. The needs of working parents in particular have become acute since the carrel was originally envisioned; Wray says people tell her all the time that they want one for at-home use. But putting these in public also helps intuitively demonstrate that parents and caregivers are welcomed. Wray remembers how, within the first hour the library had opened, she went upstairs and discovered that a mom of two had already set up shop at the desk, right in the midst of the grand-opening party. “Here was this woman at the computer station, working away, taking full advantage, with her toddler in the carrel and her baby in her arms,” says Wray. “It was, for me, the clearest moment of how needed this was.”

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Originally Appeared Here

Family Features

As temperatures drop, the risk of illness – including cold and flu – rises. It can be easy to mistake the flu for a common cold since many of the symptoms are the same, but muscle aches, cough, fever, headaches and sore throat are some of the more common signs you may be suffering from the flu, which tends to come on quicker than a cold.

In fact, a random, double-opt-in OnePoll survey of 2,005 Amer icans commissioned by Mucinex found sore throat pain to be one of the top three most debilitating symptoms along with fever and migraine.

While there’s no way to ensure you and your family members won’t get sick, there are steps you can take to reduce the chances.

Get a Flu Shot

The flu spreads differently than colds and can be transmitted before symptoms even arise. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends all people older than 6 months of age get the influenza vaccine, or flu shot, annually to help protect against the strains of flu expected to be the most common during the current flu season. The injection, which does not contain a live virus, goes into the arm muscle to generate antibodies that protect against future flu infection about two weeks after receiving the vaccine.

Practice Self-Care

While important year-round, maintaining regular self-care practices can go a long way toward maintaining your health during cold and flu season. Eating a well-balanced diet of fruits, vegetables and lean proteins can help strengthen your immune system, as can working out moderately each day. Regular exercise also helps reduce inflammation. In addition, proper hydration can help maintain many important body functions, and getting the National Sleep Foundation-recommended 7-9 hours of sleep can help keep antibodies strong and build a defense against illnesses.

Prepare for Symptoms

As one of the common symptoms of the flu, sore throat pain can flip your life upside down with the constant nagging, disruptive pain and irritation. However, 55% of those surveyed said they were likely to “power through” a sore throat and continue working, going to school and completing other tasks while dealing with sore throat pain. To make powering through easier, the Mucinex InstaSoothe line includes lozenges and sprays designed to numb, soothe and relieve sore throat pain.

“What separates these lozenges from others is they’re clinically proven to numb sore throat pain fast,” said Dr. Omid Mehdizadeh, MD, otolaryngology, and head and neck (ENT) surgeon. “Both lozenge varieties contain Hexylresorcinol, a local anesthetic for topical use on the mucous membranes of the throat and mouth. As a lozenge dissolves in the mouth, it starts to deliver a local ‘numbing’ anesthetic effect directly to the throat within seconds, lasting up to two hours. For those needing relief from a sore throat and cough, the Mucinex InstaSoothe Sore Throat + Cough Relief Lozenges also contain the active ingredient Dextromethorphan HBr to provide cough suppression.”

Stock Your Medicine Cabinet

Be ready before cold and flu hit your household. Take inventory of your medicine cabinet, get rid of any expired medicines and make note of any you need to replace and replenish. Make sure you have pain relievers, fever reducers, decongestants, antihistamines and cough syrups that can be used to help fight cold and flu symptoms. In addition, think about other supplies you may need to have on hand such as tissues, cough drops, hand sanitizer, anti-bacterial soap, a thermometer and a humidifier.

Disinfect Household Surfaces

Cold and flu viruses can live outside the human body on hard, non-porous surfaces such as metal, plastic and wood for hours, and sometimes even days. Regularly cleaning often-touched household surfaces such as doorknobs, light switches, remote controls, faucet handles and countertops with a disinfectant spray or wipe can help kill germs that cause the viruses. Look for Environmental Protection Agency-approved disinfectants containing bleach, alcohol, pine oil, sodium hypochlorite, citric acid, hydrogen peroxide or quaternary ammonium compounds for best results.

Remember Healthy Habits

One of the easiest ways to help avoid getting sick is to practice proper hygiene. Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth as much as possible, as these are areas where cold and flu germs can most easily gain entry into your system. Remember to cough and sneeze into a tissue or into your elbow if a tissue is not readily available. Frequently wash your hands with warm water and anti-bacterial soap for at least 20 seconds, especially after using the restroom, before eating and after touching surfaces in public places. A good rule of thumb is to sing “Happy Birthday” twice to judge the time. Using an alcohol-based hand sanitizer can also suffice when a sink isn’t within close proximity. Also avoid sharing items like utensils and cups, even with family members, to help avoid spreading germs.

Have a Plan for Sick Days

During cold and flu season, you or one of your family members may become ill and need to miss work or school. If you typically work in an office space, check to see if working remotely is possible and verify your office’s policies about sick time. Saving sick time or a couple vacation days for the season can help avoid having to take unpaid time off if you need to stay home for any reason. Also consider enlisting the help of friends or relatives to help with sick children in the event you’re unable to take time off from work, and coordinate with your children’s teachers to ensure your little ones receive any schoolwork they may have missed while home sick.

Find more self-care remedies and tips for managing cold and flu season at Mucinex.com.

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Originally Appeared Here

Cameron County on Monday reported five coronavirus-related deaths and 2,752 positive cases of COVID-19.

The report covers Saturday, Jan. 22, through Monday, Jan. 24.

A man and woman in their 60s from Brownsville, a woman in her 30s from Harlingen, a woman in her 90s from Los Fresnos and a man in his 50s from Rio Hondo died as a result of the virus, according to a report released by the Cameron County Public Health Department. Of the five people who died, one person was fully vaccinated. 

The reported deaths raises the total number of COVID-19 deaths in the county to 2,058. 

Of the 2,752 positive cases reported in the county, 2,002 were confirmed reports based on PCR testing, 667 were probable reports based on antigen testing, and 83 were self-reported based on at-home testing. 

Vaccination efforts continue across Cameron County; currently, 81.39% of the population five years and older is fully vaccinated.

Cameron County Public Health continues to emphasize the importance of following COVID-19 prevention methods:

•  Get vaccinated
•  Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds
•  Avoid touching your face with unwashed hands
•  Wear a mask in public indoor settings even if you are fully vaccinated
•  Practice social distance and keep about 6 feet between yourself and others
•  Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough or sneeze or use the inside of your elbow
•  Clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces daily
•  If you are sick, call your healthcare provider and home isolate

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Originally Appeared Here

Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, and a year after The Times asked public health experts and film exhibition industry leaders about its effect on attending movies safely, what has changed? We have seen new, more contagious variants. We have seen more incidents of resistance to protocols, keeping the behavior of strangers the most troubling of wild cards. But we also have seen a massive accumulation of knowledge about the disease and how it spreads — and the introduction of a key element making cinema attendance safer: the vaccines.

“As opposed to the last time we talked, there are a lot more tools in the toolkit that make gatherings such as going to a movie theater much more possible” to do safely, says Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease specialist at UC San Francisco who also spoke with The Times in November 2020. “In the past, we didn’t have vaccines. We didn’t have any chance of treating people early. Now we have oral pills for COVID, monoclonal antibodies — and vaccines, which is the most important difference.”

Checking in again with the health experts and industry leader interviewed for that November 2020 story reveals that recommendations remain largely the same: Wear masks indoors (though now medical-grade masks such as N95s are suggested in the face of the much more contagious Omicron variant) and maintain social distancing. All three agree getting vaccinated, including the booster shot, is the most important piece of the puzzle.

But while there’s visible exhaustion, even frustration, among the medical professionals, there’s also an upbeat message: With more agency than a year ago, audiences can make moviegoing a safer experience, depending on their comfort with levels of risk — and, of course, the behavior of those around them. “The overall theme is layering things on top of each other so you’re not putting all your eggs in one basket,” Chin-Hong says. “So when I say you get one hour of protection from a surgical mask, that doesn’t assume vaccines or ventilation. It all increases based on these other strategies you have.”

While new case numbers remain high in California (as of this writing, the 125,861 new cases reported last week represented a 1.8% increase from the previous week), the numbers continue to show overwhelming advantages for the vaccinated. In the latest data posted by the state on its official COVID-tracking site, the unvaccinated were 4.1 times more likely to contract the virus than the vaccinated. Chin-Hong cited data from multiple sources indicating the vaccinated were considered nearly 90% less likely to become seriously ill from COVID-19, should they suffer a breakthrough infection, and “close to 100%” less likely to die from the disease, other serious illnesses in conjunction with COVID-19 aside.

“I was [on shift] in the hospital last week and pretty much nobody I took care of was boosted,” says Chin-Hong. “It’s pretty much all nonvaccinated and immunocompromised.”

To health experts such as Chin-Hong and Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Assn., this means people have effective tools to make activities such as movie attendance much safer.

“People should not be hiding away,” says Benjamin. “I think it’s OK to go to the theater, but go with protection. And your eyes open.

“Outside is better than inside, so if you’re going to the movies, be fully vaccinated and masked. I wasn’t a fan of vaccine passports before, but I’m there now. There’s equitable access to vaccines. If a business wants you to show a vaccine card, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t. I would require people to wear a mask in common areas. And of course, I’d give caution to people with underlying medical problems.”

Chin-Hong supported the idea of requiring proof of vaccination to attend indoor events: “I think the minimum is two [doses]; more and more people are moving toward boosters as the minimum. Again, not putting all eggs in one basket: If you’re vaccinated, you should still be wearing a mask.”

The health experts agreed with Patrick Corcoran, vice president and chief communications officer for the National Assn. of Theatre Owners, that there still has not been a COVID-19 outbreak conclusively tied to movie theater attendance — “nowhere in the world,” he says. Of course, there are multiple factors making such a tie extremely difficult to definitively establish, as opposed to, say, certain events that have been deemed “super spreaders” through contact tracing and other evidence. That’s still a case of the absence of bad news potentially being good news.

“The key has been governmental policies opening up vaccinations to all adults, as well as CDC revising its policies and deferring to state and local conditions,” Corcoran says. “We still have [industry-standard safety protocols] CinemaSafe, but cinemas should look to their localities for the proper way to operate.

“The other major change has been [improved] understanding of how the virus spreads. The initial recommendation from almost every public health official was to disinfect and clean surfaces; that has proven to not really be the way it’s transmitted — it’s aerosol.”

Corcoran cites vaccines as the most important factor in movie attendance maintaining a low risk level. “The other thing has been ventilation,” he says. “In movie theaters, the ventilation is surprisingly good compared to other places. A 10-screen cineplex will typically have 11 air-conditioning units, sometimes 12. You’re not sharing air from auditorium to auditorium. Air in movie theaters tends to rise; it’s sucked out and replaced over a fairly brief time.”

Chin-Hong agrees: “Movie theaters are well ventilated. Some of these new cineplexes are like going on a plane, essentially, or another well-ventilated area. That’s very little risk.”

Corcoran said locations and activities where spread has been high — nursing homes, churches, family gatherings, weddings — “have to do with close, intimate contact and a lot of activity. At a movie theater, you’re sedentary for the most part. Your respiration is lower.”

Members of Corcoran’s organization comply with local mandates; would they impose mask and vaccination mandates where they aren’t in place locally?

“Some do,” says Corcoran. “Obviously, it will vary from company to company. In the southern tier of the country, there have been very few mandates. Some theaters have required masks anyway, but it’s hard to get in front of your public health officials.”

Some of those local rules (or lack thereof), however, can increase risk. Individuals should find out if the theater they want to attend conforms to rules within their comfort zone. Does that locality or cinema require proof of vaccination? Does it enforce a two-seat buffer between parties to maintain social distancing?

“Being shoulder to shoulder with someone during Omicron is not a good idea,” says Benjamin.

While the health experts, appeared visibly more exhausted and frustrated than a year ago, they expressed hope. Both agreed with recent reports that the Omicron variant may have passed its peak in some areas, and both cited the vaccines as having the potential to return society to some semblance of normalcy as it was thought of in 2019.

Movie attendance seems to be on the rebound. While 2021 box office was down 61% from 2019 levels, that still represented an improvement from the dark days of 2020 — and attendance trended upward throughout the year, according to statistics provided by Corcoran. Rescued, of course, by a certain web-slinger (“Spider-Man: No Way Home” is the only billion-dollar grosser of the pandemic), box office leaped from 11% of 2019 first-quarter figures to 73.3% of 2019 fourth-quarter figures during the comparable periods last year.

And while the behavior of strangers remains the top concern of those interviewed, Corcoran says the public acts of belligerence have largely passed by cinemas.

“We have seen it from time to time. It’s no secret that there are people who are very militant on both sides of these protocols. We see people going in both directions. A recent study from NRG shows older customers — who are more hesitant to do anything — they’re more hesitant to go to church than to a movie theater.”

So how does that affect theater employees’ ability or willingness to enforce policies such as mask-wearing during the show? Corcoran says, “If it’s a legal responsibility, if your business is going to be fined, you’re going to enforce it. Nobody wants to lose a customer, but it’s better to lose an uncooperative one than a cooperative one.”

Chin-Hong says, “People’s exhaustion is getting greater and greater; look at Asian hate — that hasn’t abated. It’s an underlying symptom of people’s frustrations.”

Benjamin says, “This has been a pressure test to the resilience of our society. We have people who are acting out in a variety of ways. I think they’re the tip of the iceberg. These are representations of the enormous stress society is under. Even the most resilient among us are under stress. We’re in a very explosive place.

“Those playground rules still apply: Treat others with respect, put your toys away. All those things we learned in kindergarten, those rules still apply.”

Says Corcoran: “It’s entirely about social trust, and that will grow as more people become vaccinated. Our biggest thing is we need our consumers to get vaccinated. That’s the solution for everybody and for every business.”

Though each of these interviews was conducted individually, if it sounds as if NATO is in lock-step with public-health experts, that’s because it is. Corcoran emphasizes that the theater organization has listened to the experts from the start.

“We survive and thrive based on our customers, and we have to have that trust with them,” says Corcoran.

Chin-Hong emphasized that the dangers remain real, but customers can minimize risk: “You can customize your experience to make it safer. You can go to the movie theater but watch the situation in your community. Go at a time of day when there are fewer people. The movie theater is safer than indoor dining; people are in their seats. The concession stand might be risky, where people are mingling, and when they go to the bathroom — but we’ve come a long way from a year ago.”

Benjamin said, “Two years ago, we didn’t have the tools to normalize life in our society. We now have the tools to do so. We just have to use them responsibly, utilize the best science, understanding it will change over time as we learn more. All pandemics end, either because they go away or we learn to adapt to them. We’re not there yet, but they do.”

The ABCs (and D) of safely going to the movies

Dr. Peter Chin-Hong offered this A-B-C-(also C)-D of attending movies safely, apart from the basic tenets of safety: Be vaccinated and boosted, wear a mask and observe social distancing.

“A is for assessing who you are, what’s in your situation. Are you immuno-compromised, older or living with someone who’s elderly or compromised? You’ll have to be more careful.

“B is for boosters: They keep you away from the hospital. Even with a breakthrough, you’re about 90% protected from the hospital and nearly 100% from dying” unless you have other significant illness.

“C is for children. About 5-year-olds can be vaccinated and about 12-year-olds can be boosted. That will make it a safer environment: You want to make sure there’s a wall of immunity around you.

“C is also for Concessions — the most risky part of the movie theater. Being where the popcorn is, is risky. It’s safer to take it back to your seat. But to really reduce the risk, don’t eat or drink at all in the theater. But it’s better than a restaurant — it’s more controlled than indoor dining.

“D is for diagnostic tests. If you’re worried about exposure, say some of your friends got sick in the same setting, you test Day 3 to [Day] 5 after the event.

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INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – The Indianapolis Urban League is handing out 2,500 free COVID-19 home test kits during its food and meal distribution drive on Tuesday at 10 a.m.

The league said it’s prepared to serve 500 families at 777 Indiana Avenue.

Families will also receive a case of Lysol disinfecting wipes.

There will also be 22,840 pounds of bread, meat, dairy and fresh produce during the 84th week of its drive-thru food and meal distribution.

According to the Indianapolis Urban League, it received a generous donation of COVID-19 home test kits to disburse in the community due to the higher transmissibility of the Omicron variant and low vaccination rates.

“Even in the extreme cold the Indianapolis Urban League strives to keep its clients and the community safe, fed, and informed as best illustrated today by our distribution of 2,500 COVID-19 home test kits. We appreciate the generosity of our partners and volunteers who help us serve our community,” said President and CEO Tony Mason.

The free home tests kits will be available on a first-come, first-served basis while supplies last.

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iKON’s Junhoe and TREASURE’s Yoshi have been diagnosed with COVID-19.

On January 23, iKON members Jinhwan, Yunhyeong, and Donghyuk tested positive for the virus, and the day after that, WINNER member Lee Seung Hoon was also diagnosed with COVID-19.

On January 25, YG Entertainment confirmed that two more of their artists tested positive for the virus.

Read YG Entertainment’s statement below:

This is YG Entertainment.

Following iKON members Kim Jinhwan, Song Yunhyeong, and Kim Donghyuk, Koo Junhoe was also confirmed with COVID-19.

Kim Junhoe underwent PCR testing on January 22 and received negative results. However, two days later on January 24, he had a mild sore throat and was re-examined, and he was diagnosed with COVID-19 today (January 25).

TREASURE member Yoshi, whose PCR test results came out positive, will also be self-quarantined and treated at home.

Both Koo Junhoe and Yoshi got their COVID-19 vaccinations and are currently in good health.

As with the confirmed cases earlier, we took intensive preemptive measures beyond the guidelines of the quarantine authorities.

We will continue to conduct COVID-19 tests on artists and staff members, regardless of whether they were in close contact [with those who tested positive] or not, while disinfecting the office.

We plan to share any changes to the situation quickly, and we will take all necessary measures to restore the health of our confirmed artists and prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Wishing Junhoe and Yoshi a speedy recovery!

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