Having all of the right tools and materials will make it easier to complete your pressure washing DIY project. Paint Life TV offers some advice as to which accessories you should have on hand to help make your project more efficient. First, they suggest a rotating nozzle as it’s a more effective and faster cleaner. This can be used on wood, metal, fences, siding, and more. Another tool they referenced that’s worth having is a six foot extender to make it easier to get to hard-to-reach spots as you clean. These extenders usually flex, which makes it simpler to maneuver the nozzle to get to every spot you might want to clean.

Of course, having things like the pressure washing machine itself, the correct nozzles, cleaning solution, non-slip shoes, and plastic to cover plants and landscaping are other basic materials you’ll need to get the job done.

[ad_2]

Originally Appeared Here

After the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced its changes to a host of COVID protocols, Chicago Public Schools has also revealed the policies it will adopt for the new year.

According to Dr. Allison Arwady, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, and CPS CEO Pedro Martinez, CPS will not require students and faculty to be vaccinated against the virus when they return to buildings this week.

What’s more, students will also not be required to wear masks on a regular basis, but will have to do so in specific cases, according to officials.

“CPS and all schools around Chicago have been doing a lot of preparation for the upcoming school year, and there are a huge amount of resources that have gone into this at CPS,” Arwady said. “COVID continues to change, and it’s important that the protocols continue to evolve as we learn more, so I think we’re in a really good place heading into the school year.”

Here’s what we know about the district’s policies:

COVID Vaccinations

Under this year’s protocols, students aren’t required to be vaccinated against COVID-19, although the district still “strongly encourages” eligible individuals to do so. A vaccination requirement remains in place for CPS staff.

“Close Contact” Procedures

According to officials, there will be changes to the district’s “close contact” protocols, including a step away from the “test-to-stay” program that the district had previously used.

Officials say that just 1.5% of people deemed to be “close contacts” of COVID patients ended up testing positive for the virus themselves, leading to the changes.

 Unvaccinated individuals will have the following three options when they are deemed to be a “close contact” of a COVID case:  

-Submit proof of full vaccination

-Learn/work from home for a period of five days, and then wear a mask in school for days 6-through-10

-Participate in “Test-to-Stay” protocols.

Under those protocols, students and faculty must

-Obtain two rapid tests from their school

-Test negative on the Monday and Thursday after exposure and submit the results to CPS

-Remain symptom-free throughout the following days.

-Wear a mask and refrain from participating in sports and extracurricular activities for 10 days after exposure

Masking Guidelines

According to CPS, masking will not be required in most situations, but is still “strongly recommended.” Masks will be available to those who request them, according to officials.

In certain instances, however, masking will be required:

-Students and staff who are returning from isolation after a positive COVID test will be required to wear a mask until they have passed 10 days since the onset of their symptoms.

-Individuals who are identified as “close contacts” of COVID patients will have to mask for 10 days following their exposure, regardless of their vaccination status.

-If there are three or more cases of COVID within a single classroom, students and faculty will be required to wear a mask for at least 10 days after the last positive result is reported.

Contact Tracing Changes

-In elementary schools, contact tracing will be done at the classroom level, meaning that if one individual tests positive for the virus, every other individual in the classroom will automatically be deemed “close contacts” and will be notified of the test result.

Those individuals would then be required to wear a mask for up to 10 days after the exposure.

-In high schools, contact tracing will be done at an individual level, and the response will vary depending on whether or not the student or staff member is vaccinated against COVID.

* Vaccinated students and faculty who are deemed “close contacts” will be allowed to remain in school as long as they wear a mask for 10 days after their exposure.

* Unvaccinated students and staff will be required to work or study from home for five days, and then to wear a mask for days 6-through-10, unless they opt to participate in “Test-to-Stay” protocols.

Additional Protocols and Policies:

-Air filters have been replaced in all CPS schools

-CPS will thoroughly clean and disinfect all schools prior to the school year.

-CPS will offer four permanent vaccination clinics at Clark, Roosevelt, CVCA and Richards.

-Students and faculty who wish to enroll in weekly COVID testing must do so prior to the school year with new consent forms. Those can be found at color.com/readycheckgo-cps

Unvaccinated students and faculty are encouraged, but not required, to enroll. Testing will begin on Aug. 29, with at-home tests offered the week of Aug. 22.

[ad_2]

Originally Appeared Here

Leer en español.

There are no mask mandates and no quarantine rules in Colorado’s COVID guidance for the 2022-23 school year, but public health officials say they’re still tracking the disease and want school administrators to be open and honest with families about cases and clusters. 

New guidance released Wednesday largely treats COVID like other communicable diseases, continuing a policy the state established in February at the end of the first omicron wave. At the same time, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment is continuing to make free rapid antigen tests widely available to schools and child care centers, both for weekly testing programs and for students to use at home. 

Colorado saw high levels of COVID-19 all summer, with a sustained plateau in hospitalizations that began to decline this month. Bailey Fosdick, a member of the state’s COVID modeling team at the Colorado School of Public Health, said the lack of mitigation measures like masking may contribute to some spread in classrooms, but the combination of vaccination and recent infection should put a brake on transmission. 

“Even with school starting, all of our models suggest cases and hospitalizations will continue to decline through at least the end of September,” Fosdick said. “And that’s due to the high levels of infections we saw in the spring and summer. We estimate that we still have quite a bit of immunity in the population, particularly immunity from severe disease.”

State Epidemiologist Rachel Herlihy said the new guidance aims to minimize disruptions for students and families while remaining alert for signs of clusters or higher transmission that might indicate a need for stepped-up precautions. Colorado is in a very different position than it was two years ago, she said, and that warrants a new approach. 

Chalkbeat spoke with Herlihy about this approach to COVID as students return to school. Her answers are lightly edited for length and clarity. 

What COVID precautions are you recommending K-12 schools take this year?

There’s no new requirements for the 2022-2023 school year. What you’re going to see in the guidance is continuing down that pathway of managing COVID-19 more like other communicable diseases. Places where previously you may have seen criteria for quarantine based on the level of vaccination in a school or the level of participation in testing, those types of things are gone now. It’s much more simplified, much more streamlined. 

Quarantine is not a big focus, but you’ll see a big focus on that relationship between local public health and school districts and individual schools and really working together to identify when there are increases in transmission and when additional mitigation strategies might be needed. 

An important priority in the new guidance is we do really want school administrators to continue to be transparent and share information with students and staff and parents when there are cases increasing, when there are outbreaks or there are clusters in those schools, so that those individuals have the opportunity to take extra steps to protect themselves if that’s what they want to do.

Are masks still effective against new variants?

Masks continue to be an important strategy to both protect yourself, but also potentially protect other individuals. Places where individuals might want to consider mask use would be people who are regularly in contact with people who are high risk, or people who are themselves high risk might want to wear masks. Times when mask use might also be considered would be if you’re going to be in a crowded place, especially if you have something coming up. A good example for me personally would be last year, my daughter’s graduation was coming up and transmission levels were high. Our family was routinely wearing masks for a while to minimize the chance that we would be exposed and miss her graduation and other important end-of-the-school-year type things. 

So again that focus is on individual-level responsibility and decision-making.

How long should people with a positive test stay home before returning to school?

The recommendation hasn’t changed around isolation. There is that shortened isolation period of five days, and then after that the recommendation is to wear a mask. And that does continue to be an important strategy in our school guidance, that individuals who do test positive and have symptoms of COVID-19 should isolate and not be in public.

Child vaccination rates remain low in many parts of the state. What are you doing to increase those rates and what will that mean for transmission in schools?

Vaccination is obviously an important strategy to decrease the risk of transmission and also really important for preventing severe disease. We’re continuing to ensure that Coloradans have equitable access to vaccines, that schools promote vaccination alongside our local public health partners. [Almost 38% of Colorado children ages 5 to 11 are vaccinated against COVID-19, compared with 30% nationally. For children ages 12 to 17, it’s 65%.]

Some of the news about polio that you may have seen recently also reinforces the importance of other childhood vaccinations. And this is the right time for parents to be thinking about all of those vaccines as they’re getting ready to send their kids back to school.

CDPHE has stopped monitoring school-based COVID outbreaks. How will we know whether COVID is spreading in schools?

I would correct your language a little bit. Outbreaks are still reportable. We’re still very closely monitoring the data and working with our local public health partners who are working with schools to identify increases in transmission, increases in absenteeism in a way that is now more closely aligned with what we do with other communicable diseases. You may remember norovirus outbreaks that occurred before the pandemic and influenza outbreaks that occur in school. And so this approach is really about aligning our approach with COVID-19 to the approach we take with those other communicable diseases.

So what types of things would flag an outbreak? What are you watching for?

​​We want school staff, school administrators to be aware and looking at their absenteeism data. That is something that they are expected to do not just in the time of COVID. Even pre-pandemic, that was an expectation, looking for clusters of cases. Are there kids or staff who have similar symptoms? Are they clustered in particular classrooms or grade levels? 

At that point, they would reach out to their local public health partners just like they would for flu or other infectious diseases and get guidance from public health on whether additional mitigation strategies might be needed. It could be enhanced testing in the school once increased transmission is identified. That might be when you start doing more case investigation and contact tracing once again, or quarantine, all of those things that we’ve been doing.

Were the precautions many teachers and students took over the last two years, like quarantines and masking, unnecessary? What’s changed?

I would say that there’s both virus factors and human factors that lead us to be in a very different place right now, and so our public health response has changed. We have a population that’s largely immune either through vaccination or through previous infection. 

And then the virus has also changed. We continue to see these variants evolve but even as they’re becoming more transmissible, they’re causing less severe disease. And so because of that, we’re in a pretty different place. And I think that calls for an adjusting our public health response.

Earlier in the pandemic, many schools put a lot of effort into disinfecting surfaces. Now we know that’s not a major source of COVID transmission. Are there still benefits to doing that?

You’re probably speaking to someone who’s very interested in environments being disinfected and not just for COVID purposes but for other communicable diseases. We know that disinfecting surfaces can help prevent transmission of norovirus or influenza or maybe monkeypox. As we start thinking about new challenges that are facing us, disinfection continues to be an important strategy. 

Speaking of monkeypox, will there be school guidance related to that?

The CDC is very actively working on that right now and has told us that we can expect school and child care-type guidance in the next one to two weeks. Children haven’t been the population that’s been most impacted — that’s what the data is showing us. But obviously, we want to be prepared as we go back to school. 

​​Bureau Chief Erica Meltzer covers education policy and politics and oversees Chalkbeat Colorado’s education coverage. Contact Erica at [email protected].

[ad_2]

Originally Appeared Here

This story is part of Home Tips, CNET’s collection of practical advice for getting the most out of your home, inside and out.

My yoga mat goes through a lot each week. Between taking it to boxing training sessions each day for core workouts to using it for morning yoga, my mat gets dragged around to some not-so-clean surfaces — not to mention how it inevitably gets covered in my sweat, too.

Because yoga mats are often used for intense, sweaty workouts, it’s easy for them to harbor germs and bacteria. So whether you’re sharing mats at a yoga class or using your own, it’s worth taking the time to clean your mat often. Here are several tips and tricks on how to best clean your yoga mat. (For more cleaning tips, here’s our guide on how to clean your mattress, how to kill mold in your washer and how to declutter your closet.)

How to clean your yoga mat

For everyday cleaning

For just the regular daily cleaning you’ll want to do after a class or practice, I recommend using a homemade cleaning solution. You can simply mix white vinegar or witch hazel with water at a 1-to-4 ratio in a spray bottle and shake slightly to combine. (You can add a few drops of tea tree oil or another essential oil if you want a scent.) Then spray down your mat and gently wipe the solution all around the surface. Let your mat fully dry before rolling it up. 

For deep cleaning 

Believe it or not, one of the best methods to deep-clean your yoga mat is to give it a bath. Fill up a sink or bathtub with enough temperate water to fully submerge the mat. You can add a tablespoon of dish soap or detergent for each gallon of water. Allow it to soak for about 10 minutes, then gently wipe the front and back down with a cloth. Rinse your mat off with clean water before drying off the mat. I recommend wiping the mat off with a dry cloth before hanging the mat somewhere to hang-dry fully. 

I like to leave my mat to dry overnight to be completely moisture-free before I roll it back up. 

Depending on how much you use it, you’ll need to deep clean your yoga mat every few weeks or monthly.

Amanda Capritto/CNET

Can you wash a yoga mat in the washing machine? 

While I recommend the above cleaning methods, some yoga mats are machine washable. If you really want to machine-wash your mat, do so on a cold gentle cycle. Check the mat’s care instructions before trying this method, though, because some yoga mats will fall apart in the wash. But never put your yoga mat in the dryer: Always leave it to air-dry. 

How often should you clean your yoga mat?

With frequent usage, your yoga mat can quickly accumulate sweat, lint, skin oils, dirt and other grime. And over time, they can begin to smell if you’re not careful. Depending on how much you use it, you should deep clean it around once a month. It’s also just good practice to give it a wipe down with disinfecting wipes or a gentle cleaning solution after every use. 

It’s important to note that yoga mats are supposed to feel tacky, or slightly sticking. Mats are made that way intentionally to help you hold more difficult yoga poses. While cleaning, be careful to not use harsh chemicals or scrub so hard that you eliminate the sticky finish so you keep your mat grippy and extend its longevity. 

Looking to get into yoga? Try out these yoga poses for better sleep and read about the benefits associated with hot yoga. 

More cleaning recommendations 

The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified health provider regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition or health objectives.

[ad_2]

Originally Appeared Here

• A Georgia mother describes her experience after testing positive for monkeypox in July.
• Camille Seaton, 20, told Insider that it took her three and a half weeks to heal from the virus.
• She described her experience as being painful but noted that she is fully healing. 

Loading
Something is loading.

Camille Seaton looked into her bathroom mirror and started noticing bumps appearing on her face. 

Seaton knew something was wrong, although she wasn’t sure what yet, but decided to separate herself from her 3-year-old daughter just to be safe.

“When you first see the bumps appear, that’s your warning,” Seaton, 20, told Insider.

“The first night when the bumps started to appear, I was vomiting and had diarrhea — I was just like, ‘Okay, something’s wrong.’ So I took [my daughter], not knowing what it was, to my family’s house.”

Over the next few days, Seaton’s symptoms progressed, and it wasn’t the typical breakout like she thought. She started realizing that the bumps were turning white and into blisters, describing it as looking like “cereal holes on my face.”

The Georgia resident checked into the emergency room in mid-July, where the doctors swabbed her lesions. Forty-eight hours later, she was informed that she had the monkeypox virus, an illness that can trigger flu-like symptoms and infectious pus-filled boils that spread throughout the body. 

“It was itching. It was joint pain. It was excruciating headaches. It was fainting. I was in pain literally all of the time,” she said. “You have to go through so much before you even start the healing process.”

“I actually had a Monkeypox [lesion] in my ear, and I can’t hear out of my right ear [canal] really,” she added.

As of August 12, there have been over 11,000 monkeypox cases in the US, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Public health officials are still grappling with a scarcity of vaccines and rampant misinformation.

Seaton’s experience is a cautionary tale of navigating an already-strained health care system and using social media to combat gossip. 

‘I couldn’t pretty much handle anything’

Photo shows Day 6 after Camille Seaton, 20, contracted the monkeypox virus.

Courtesy of Camille Seaton

Being that Seaton was one of the first people in her state to contract the virus, she said she was contacted by the CDC and told them about her experience.

Specifically, in the Peach State, there are 851 cases of the virus, and health officials say infections are rising. In wake of the virus trending upward, the White House declared the outbreak a public health emergency last week.

Isolation in her townhouse was lonely for Seaton, especially without her daughter. Experts say that the infection can last between two and four weeks and urge people to prioritize staying at home. 

However, during the isolation period, Seaton heavily relied on ordering her food and other necessities through delivery apps. She said that about a week and a half after she contracted the virus, the lesions appeared all over her body. 

“I couldn’t wash dishes. I couldn’t fold my clothes,” she said. “I couldn’t pretty much handle anything. It really hurt.”

To manage her pain, she told Insider that she was mostly taking Tylenol. Limited treatments are available for the monkeypox virus, and Seaton said that she wasn’t offered additional treatment. 

The Department of Health and Human Services plans to make 1.1 million vials of the monkeypox vaccine available, according to a statement. As of August 12, there have been roughly 630,000 vials sent to states around the country, the agency said. 

And in Georgia, about 27,000 vaccines have been released to the state, which has a population of over 10 million. 

“You don’t find comfort in knowing that there’s no cure and that nobody knows what to do for you and that you have to sit there in pain and just literally wait it out and suffer,” Seaton said.

She started to use TikTok as an outlet to educate others on the virus and continued to update her audience on her progress. 

“As the cases grow, I just want everybody to know that they’re not alone and I’m here to help them, and I’m here to spread information about what I went through so that maybe they can find comfort in having it in general,” she said. 

Seaton took a hit financially after being out of work for weeks.

For Seaton, it took three and a half weeks to recover. Once her scabs started to fully heal and she was no longer considered contagious, she worked overtime to disinfect her home to prepare to reconnect with her child.

“That’s me bleaching the bathroom. I’m cleaning the walls,” she said. I’m mopping. I’m disinfecting the counters. I’m putting Lysol on all the door handles and on everything that we touch.”

Camille and her 3-year-old daughter.

Courtesy of Camille Seaton

Seaton’s first day back to work was on Tuesday at a gas station, where she believes she contracted the virus due to handling money and then touching her face. 

She said that she has been recognized by strangers because of her online content.  

And in addition to some negative backlash as well as death threats online, she has received intimidating calls at her job.

“The person on the phone was just saying, ‘Why are you at work, and you have Monkeypox? Why the f–k would you do that?” she said. “People on the internet, they’re saying, ‘Ew, why are you spreading it?’ They’re thinking I’m the one who’s spreading it all across Georgia.”

She added that people have also baselessly accused her of contracting the virus through sex with a gay man — a falsehood as experts have explained that anyone could contract the virus, and transmission is not restricted to intercourse. The virus could spread simply through skin-to-skin contact and fabrics. 

And on top of the physical healing from the monkeypox virus, Seaton had to recover financially as well. The mother said she wasn’t sure if her daughter was going to have a home to come back to after being out of work for about a month. 

She created a GoFundMe for support and has raised nearly $18,000 so far. Seaton said she not only plans to help herself but others as well. 

“I really want to give back to a lot of hospitals that are treating people with monkeypox and monkeypox organizations in general,” she said. “The proceeds are going to go to my baby and medical bills that I’ve to pay. I was able to pay rent. It’s just overwhelming the amount of support that I’ve been getting.”

[ad_2]

Originally Appeared Here

Oregon schools are preparing for the 2022-23 school year starting in September, but with COVID-19 still a prevalent concern for many, districts must implement guidelines for how to keep students and staff safe.

The Oregon Department of Education requires school district and charter schools to submit a COVID-19 Management Plan by Aug. 26. Nearly all of the COVID-19 safety procedures are decisions made at the district level, and most districts will consult with local health authorities when creating their plans.

On Wednesday, ODE and the Oregon Health Authority reaffirmed that local entities will take the lead on health protocols during a news conference about the latest updates on COVID-19 before the school year begins next month.

“At this time we can we are leaving those decisions to those local school leaders who can base their decisions on what’s happening in individual classrooms, grade levels, schools across the district,” said Dr. Dean Sidelinger, health officer and state epidemiologist at OHA, during the conference. “(The local districts) know the data. They know the resources that they have. They know the improvements they’ve made in ventilation. They know their vaccination rates or can look at vaccination rates in their community and other things that they can use to make those decisions.”

Colt Gill, director of ODE, said he is confident in local school leaders and their decision-making. He added that in 2021-22, apart from a few exceptions, schools remained open throughout the academic year. The No. 1 goal is to continue offering equitable opportunities for students to remain in-person at school, he said.

“Certainly, if the virus evolves, and we see variants that are causing more significant disease … we will discuss what are options,” Sidelinger said. “Do we need to look at more measures? Do we need to recommend something more strongly, or do we need to consider statewide actions? Right now, we have nothing on the horizon — no indications that we’re going to see the virus mutate in a way that would cause us to do that.”

However, with the new school year comes a great risk for virus spread.

“I know firsthand that schools are critical to our children’s social and emotional well-being and know they also create opportunities for viruses and illnesses to spread,” Sidelinger said.

Sidelinger encouraged parents to get their children vaccinated if they can and “as soon as possible” to prepare for the start of classes.

Sidelinger also mentioned monkeypox during Wednesday’s press conference. OHA has confirmed 116 cases in the state. He said the likelihood of spread of the disease in a school setting is low, but anyone who might be experiencing symptoms of monkeypox is advised to stay home and quarantine.

He advised schools to plan ahead for how to support students and staff who will experience prolonged times isolating at home after being diagnosed with monkeypox.

What will schools have to incorporate into the guidance?

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released updated COVID-19 guidance Aug. 11, but OHA confirmed that much of the guidance already has been in place in Oregon since March. For example, OHA has not recommended quarantine after an exposure without a positive test result for the general population or in K-12 settings since March. However, isolation recommendations and school exclusion requirements for individuals diagnosed with COVID-19 are still in place. OHA and ODE will continue to review updated CDC guidance to identify areas where state specific guidance may need to change.

ODE no longer requires indoor masking or distancing, but schools may implement measures to require masking if they deem it necessary.

Districts have to outline three states of COVID-19 guidance:

• Baseline (mitigation measures that are present all of the time);
• High COVID-19 transmission within the community or a specific school;
• Gradual return for a transition from increased measures to the a potentially enhanced baseline.

The management plans falls in line with the CDC’s suggestion that all school districts set infectious disease prevention strategies. These sorts of guidelines could be part of the “new normal” that comes with a post-pandemic world.

Both ODE and the CDC recommend “layered” health and safety measures, such as getting vaccinated, wearing face coverings and improved airflow and circulation.

Eugene, Bethel and Springfield plans regarding mask wearing, hygiene

Broadly, Eugene School District 4J, Bethel School District and Springfield Public Schools all have optional mask-wearing. Additionally, Bethel still requires masking for staff in health care settings and settings where there are students with increased health needs.

The CDC, ODE and Oregon Health Authority still “strongly recommend” masks in school settings when COVID-19 cases are high in the surrounding community to reduce the potential time out of school and more learning loss.

4J, Bethel and SPS all have an emphasis on hygiene as outlined in their most recent plans — frequent hand-washing, disinfecting, cleaning and covering mouths and noses when coughing or sneezing. The districts also require staff to be vaccinated against COVID-19 in accordance with a state mandate put in place in August 2021.

4J offers on-site diagnostic testing and take-home testing are available to students and staff under certain circumstances. 4J encourages all staff and students to enroll in voluntary weekly screening testing through OHA. There are no state requirements for student vaccinations. Although the districts do offer free COVID-19 vaccination clinics, they do not ask for students’ vaccine status.

The districts recommend if a student or staff member is sick, they should not come to school and generally should not return to school until they’ve been fever-free for 72 hours.

Districts still have until Aug. 26 to submit their plans to the state, so these plans are subject to change. 4J and SPS both confirmed they are still finalizing plans to send.

Mental health, equity part of local schools’ plans

Mental health supports and equity are a big focus of the management plans as well. Bethel and 4J plans mention social emotional learning and staff training for mental health services.

ODE requires each district to outline how they intend to ensure equity in its new policies. For example, Bethel offers “communication shared with families in a variety of platforms to meet their needs” for mental and physical health resources to ensure equitable outreach.

Some districts note information or resources translated to Spanish. 4J specifically mentions BIPOC and LGBTQ+ staff trainings and safe spaces.

First days of school

• Bethel’s first days are Sept. 6 for K-8 and Sept. 7 for high school.
• Eugene 4J’s first days are Sept. 7 for elementary, sixth grade and ninth to 12th grades; and Sept. 8 for seventh and eighth grades. Sept. 6 is ninth-grade orientation day.
• Springfield’s first days are Sept. 7 for half of kindergarteners, elementary, and sixth and ninth grades; and Sept. 8 for half of kindergarteners, seventh and eighth grades and 10th-12th grades. (No school for kindergarten on Sept. 9.)

Miranda Cyr reports on education for The Register-Guard. You can contact her at [email protected] or find her on Twitter @mirandabcyr.

[ad_2]

Originally Appeared Here

As COVID cases continue to decline in LA county, Monkeypox cases have doubled since last week, according to the LA County Department of Public Health. 

For the second week in a row LA County has been classified as medium COVID risk by CDC criteria, with case numbers and hospitalizations both down from recent worrying highs. 

LA County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said there are several other encouraging signs in the county’s COVID data, including the fact that LA has not recorded increased circulation of the new COVID sub variant, BA.2.75. 

“This is good news as our recent history has linked proliferation of new strains with increased transmissibility,” Ferrer said at this week’s media briefing. 

Ferrer also said that the department is anticipating more information from the White House in the next few weeks about when doses of the Omicron-specific vaccine booster will be available in LA and who will be eligible to receive them.

Meanwhile, the county has been rolling out a monkeypox vaccination campaign for those deemed to be at high risk of infection. This includes gay and bisexual men, the demographic that has experienced the greatest spread of the disease. So far the county has received 43,290 doses from the federal government, 91 percent of which have already been administered. 

As of Wednesday, 971 cases had been recorded in LA county, double the figure from last week. About 98 percent of cases were men, according to the department of public health. The county also recorded its first case in a jail as well as in a homeless shelter. 

“We continue working with clinical staff in the LA county jail system to provide vaccinations to people in high risk cohorts and to work with partners to provide information on vaccines to people experiencing homelessness,” said County Health Officer Muntu Davis. 

While Monkeypox does not appear to be as easily transmissible as COVID, Davis emphasized the importance of taking precautions such as hand washing, disinfecting surfaces and staying home when sick.

“Many of these steps will sound familiar as they reflect a lot of general prevention practices public health has encouraged throughout the COVID 19 pandemic,” he said. “One thing I want to reiterate is that the risk of monkeypox remains low for the general public.” 

[email protected]

[ad_2]

Originally Appeared Here

The Senate will impose a lockdown on Monday to disinfect the building after seven senators have tested positive for COVID-19, Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri said Friday.

“I have instructed the Secretariat to conduct a thorough cleaning and disinfection of all Senate offices. For this reason, there will be a total lockdown of our Senate building and all Senate employees shall work from home and need not report to the Senate on Monday,” Zubiri told reporters in a Viber message.

The Senate session will resume on Tuesday, August 23, he added.

The decision was made after Senate Majority Floor Leader Joel Villanueva, Senators JV Ejercito, Nancy Binay, Grace Poe, Cynthia Villar, Imee Marcos and Alan Peter Cayetano  contracted the disease.

Zubiri said several other senators were also exposed to their staff members and members of the secretariat who caught the virus. — RSJ, GMA News

[ad_2]

Originally Appeared Here

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) – The state health department is finally offering guidance for the monkeypox virus, which is spread through skin-to-skin contact causing rashes or sores.

It is recommended that people with a confirmed monkeypox case should isolate at home, and not go to work or leave the house until the scab on the sores has fully healed and all symptoms have been resolved for at least 48 hours.

People with roommates should isolate in a separate room and avoid close skin-to-skin contact with other people and animals in the home.

This is where to get a monkeypox shot

Wash all the clothing and bedding that used by the person with the virus, especially items that touched any sores, and disinfect surfaces. If someone with the virus shares a bathroom with someone else, all surfaces should be cleaned and disinfected after use by the person with monkeypox.

People with monkeypox who live in close contact with others should cover up unhealed sores with bandages. They can also wear a mask.

Yesterday the monkeypox vaccination clinic at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital gave out 349 doses. Demand for the vaccine seems to be slowing down, as all walk-ins were served. The clinic will be open again Friday 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

KRONON is streaming live

What are the symptoms of monkeypox?

Symptoms of monkeypox include onset of flu-like symptoms and distinctive rashes or sores that could look like pimples or blisters. United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention statistics show the most commonly-reported symptoms are rash (99%), malaise (70%) and fever (64%).

The CDC stated August 6 that the most common places where rashes have been reported in this outbreak are genitals (46% of cases), arms (40%), face (38%) and legs (37%).

While the red, flat spots which become bumps can be anywhere on the body, they are most likely in the current outbreak to affect the genital or rectal areas, or the fingers, mouth or eyes. The spots become bumps, which break and crust over into a scab. They may be itchy, but not necessarily.

Further, some people only get one or some of these symptoms; it is possible to have a fever but never a rash, or have these symptoms sequentially and not concurrently.

What is the monkeypox vaccine?

The monkeypox virus is in the orthopoxvirus family alongside smallpox, for which routine vaccination in the U.S. ended in 1972 after the disease was declared eradicated here. Jynneos, a vaccine approved for both smallpox and monkeypox, is at least 85% effective against monkeypox, though its effectiveness reduces over time.

Why 100 million vaccines aren’t being used for monkeypox

Getting the vaccine within 14 days of exposure can prevent or mitigate disease risk, as the incubation period can be weeks.

Healthcare providers should test for other infections with similar symptoms, such as syphilis. Tests for monkeypox are confirmed at specialized labs.

Side-effects of the vaccine could include redness, pain or swelling at the injection site, muscle pain, headache, fatigue and nausea.

Who can get a monkeypox infection?

According to CDC statistics released August 6, 99% of cases were in men, and 94% of cases were in men who reported having sex with men. Among those cases, the majority had reported multiple sexual partners in the prior three weeks. A total of ten U.S. cases have been reported in women, according to the CDC, and as of August 3 two pediatric cases have been confirmed. The virus is spread through close skin-on-skin contact and an adviser on sexually transmitted infections with the World Health Organization stated experts have not determined whether it is a sexually transmitted infection per se, though it is “clearly transmitted during sex.”

However, Noel Sanchez of the San Francisco Department of Public Health cautioned that anyone could become infected with the monkeypox virus, and that it doesn’t necessarily require sexual contact to contract it.

“SFDPH takes monkeypox seriously,” Sanchez stated. “While most cases resolve on their own without pills or treatment, monkeypox can be serious. We are trying to contain outbreaks and reduce transmission to avoid the virus spreading to more people and potentially becoming endemic. To that end, we are doing education and outreach to communities most at risk; tracking monkeypox cases; distributing and administering vaccines as a preventative measure to people at high risk because of an exposure; and supporting testing and clinical guidance to providers, among other efforts.”

Sanchez advises people to cover exposed skin in crowds, avoid sharing bedding and clothing, talk with close physical and sexual contacts about health, rashes and sores, and be aware of symptoms.

[ad_2]

Originally Appeared Here

Something I wasn’t aware of until recently was a service that cleaned your trash bins. Wanting to learn more about it, I joined Alpha Bin Cleaning and owner, Andrew Ramirez, for a day on the job. There I was able to learn about them, see what the process entails, and help educate others on something that may be new to them.

Admittedly, trash bin cleaning is a luxury, but one that has its benefits. Aside from the basics like sanitation, disinfecting and killing germs, bacteria and diseases inside your bin, there are other things it helps with. For starters, many homeowner’s associations require you to keep bins inside so having a clean bin will help keep the flies out. Our bin is beyond disgusting. Between diapers when we are too lazy to bag them up, kids pouring drinks in there, random food getting tossed in and general trash, our bin has become the Disney World for flies and bugs.

I went out with Andrew for about an hour to learn what he does and watch it in action.

For starters, if anybody has ever met Andrew, he has such an upbeat and infectious personality. It was crazy and cool to listen to him talk about Alpha Bin. There was such a strong passion in his voice for what he does.

While following him along, every cleaning started with wiping the inside of the bins, and spraying them down, inside and out.

From there, his truck would lift the bins and give it a deeper cleaning. This was probably the longest process of them all.

During this time, Andrew would tell me, he used to run his business out of a basic sprayer and a regular truck. Over time, he and his wife built the business, hustled for new clients and finally purchased the truck you see below.

Once that was done, he sprayed the bins down one more time, flipped them over to dry, and then gave it a nice disinfectant spray.

The biggest question I had for Andrew was, obviously, cost.

It was way more affordable than I thought. Monthly service are between $10-12, depending on if you pre-paid. Bi-monthly cleanings are $13 while quarterly cleanings are $15. And then, one-time service cleanings are $20. They did tell me that a coupon code 5Off was available for one-time cleanings to give them a try.

It was fun and insightful sitting in with Andrew on the job. I have a deep level of appreciation for entrepreneurs who started something from nothing with barely any help. Andrew and his wife, Emily, have done a phenomenal job of building Alpha Bin Cleaning.

To set up your cleaning, call or text 316-974-BINS. For more information, check them out on Facebook or visit their website.

Lastly, here’s Alpha Bin Cleaning in action:

@wichitabyeb Perhaps the start of a new series where I join local business owners to watch what they do. To start, I joined Alpha Bin Cleaning owner Andrew Ramirez and followed him as he cleaned some bins around town. #Wichita #fyp #vlog #trashbincleaning ♬ Blackk Beat Music (Instrumental 2) – Instrumental – Dj Blackk Beat

For more local business spotlights, check out our Shop Local archive.

Did you love the article and want to help the continuing free content at Wichita By E.B.? You can help keep our site going with a simple one-time or recurring donation. Your contribution is appreciated.

Donate

Become a Patron!

[ad_2]

Originally Appeared Here