LS Desk

Thu Jul 7, 2022 03:52 PM Last update on: Thu Jul 7, 2022 04:01 PM

Photo: Sazzad Ibne Sayed

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Photo: Sazzad Ibne Sayed

Let’s start with full disclosure— most of us reading this are not an expert at kitchen cleaning, nor is our kitchen perfectly sparkling clean at every moment. With Eid ul Azha knocking at our door, it is mandatory to assume that our kitchen will go through a tornado of bloody mess. Both scenarios require different post-cleaning procedures, from handling raw meat to cooking them.

Things can and will get pretty crazy and sometimes, it just is not possible to get the dishes and kitchen space cleaned immediately. With all that being said, the need to emphasise keeping a clean kitchen is imperative. Many might be perplexed at first, but a tidy kitchen offers an abundance of benefits.

For all latest news, follow The Daily Star’s Google News channel.

Here are a few tips as hacks to force messy cooks to be more orderly.

Photo: Sazzad Ibne Sayed

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Photo: Sazzad Ibne Sayed

What to do after the meat distribution is over

Sterilisation

The first step is sterilisation! After the sacrifice, there will be small pools and droplets of blood on your kitchen floor. To properly sterilise, use boiling water and appropriate amounts of chlorine to wash the floors and other surfaces. This will eradicate bacteria of any kind that lurks on the surface of the kitchen floor and utensils.

Sanitation

The areas where raw meat is kept in the kitchen for processing can start to smell really fast and really bad. To avoid bad odours and insects in those areas, clean it thoroughly with antiseptic liquid, bleach or detergents. It is very important to wash off the chemical cleaners by pouring ample water properly.

What to do after a regular day

Bacteria can lurk in almost every corner of your home, but the kitchen has the most potential to become a cesspool. The warm, moist conditions and open space make it an ideal environment for bacteria to build their own sentient civilisation.

The following tips will help you control those dreaded bacteria

Use dishwashing soap with water to clean the kitchen and utensils thoroughly before and after preparing meals with raw meat, fish, eggs, and poultry. Raw foods contain bacteria and can easily cross-contaminate other foods.

• Always use clean or freshly laundered dishcloths and tea towels. Disposable paper towels are even better. One square cm of a soiled dish cloth can contain 10 million bacteria.
• Use the right amount of dishwashing soap and keep the drains, filter and all surfaces clean. Remember, the highest temperature cycle will be most effective against bacteria.
• Disinfectants such as bleach are designed to reduce bacteria to a safe level.
• Keep all food cupboards clean, cool, tidy, and dry.
• Dishwashing liquid soaps are designed to dissolve grease, oil, and dirt. Only a little amount is enough to clean your entire crockeries used for cooking a feast.
• Anti-bacterial cleaners or sprays disinfect the area applied and reduce bacterial growth.
• Disinfectants and anti-bacterial cleaners will not work if you do not use them properly, so always follow the instructions.

If a home can be a temple, then the kitchen should be the core of holiness. Cleaning it a day will keep the doctors away!

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Originally Appeared Here

The Maine Department of Agriculture is advising bird owners to avoid exhibitions until the Avian Flu is gone.

What is Avian Influenza?

It’s ironic that after the hiatus taken by local fairs due to the COVID pandemic, now a new outbreak is causing organizers to re-evaluate their rules and institute new safety measures, this time due to a virus that’s affecting birds around the state. Avian influenza is exactly what it sounds like…a flu virus that affects birds, and can spread to mammals. Hundreds of birds in Maine have been destroyed after becoming infected with the virus already this year, and now officials say it appears it may have spread to some seals on the coast. The instance of avian influenza spreading to humans is very rare.

How is This Affecting Public Bird Exhibitions?

Earlier this month, the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry recommended the cancellation or postponement of competitions, exhibitions, shows, swaps, or other in-person events that encourage the gathering or comingling of domestic fowl or poultry after another group of non-commercial backyard birds was diagnosed with the virus on June 28th. The advisory is expected to stay in place until 30 days have elapsed since any new cases of the disease are diagnosed,

In addition, officials strongly recommend that residents with home flocks who are not healthy stay away from any poultry shows. Even if they don’t bring birds with them, they could spread the disease on their clothes and footwear. More tips:

• Minimize contact with the birds on exhibit and their environments
• Wash hands on the way in and out of the exhibit
• Clean and disinfect poultry cages between use
• Keep chickens, turkeys, and guinea fowl physically separate from waterfowl at the exhibit and/or consider not bringing waterfowl at all, as they can carry the illness without showing any symptoms
• Be prepared to respond to suspect or confirmed cases of Avian Influenza including documenting show participant information, making a plan for restricting access to the exhibit area, and keeping contact information for state and local veterinarians handy

Finally, they encourage anyone with backyard flocks to keep an eye on the progressions of the virus in the state on the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry website. 

The Maine Association of Agricultural Fairs has a link to the advisory on its website. We’ve reached out to the organizers to determine whether the bird exhibits are banned from Maine fairs or whether they’re leaving that decision up to each individual agricultural fair committee and will update this story when we hear back from them.

How Do You Report Bird(s) Who Seem to Be Sick?

Anyone who needs to report sick poultry or unusual domestic bird deaths can call the USDA’s toll-free sick bird hotline at 1-866-536-7593.

To report a strange-acting or dead wild bird, call the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife at 207-287-8000 or, if it’s after business hours, call the ME DIFW regional office at 1-800-452-4664.

2022 Maine Fair Schedule

2022 is looking bright for upcoming events in Maine’s great outdoors, including our annual fairs. Here’s a list of this year’s Maine fair schedule, the dates of each fair event, and what to look forward to with each one.

The 2022 Maine Whoopie Pie Festival

It was sooo hot, but we had a blast in Dover-Foxcroft for the annual Maine Whoopie Pie Festival!

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Originally Appeared Here

The clinic – a box perched on wheels and painted with trees and people – sat in the gravel and grass parking lot of a burger and wings joint called VNV Sports Bar and Grill, the only restaurant in Metcalfe, Mississippi. Choosing where to park it in this Delta town of about 1,000 people had not been difficult.

“It’s the main strip in Metcalfe,” said Antoinette Roby, a community health worker and driver at Plan A. The mobile clinic offers pap smears and mammograms, testing for sexually transmitted diseases and COVID-19 vaccines, contraceptives and blood pressure tests– all for free.

Since April 2021, Roby and her colleague Juliet Thomas have criss-crossed the Delta in the clinic, aiming to expand access to primary and reproductive health care in a region where many people hear “clinic” and assume they can’t afford to step inside. 

Mississippi has one of the highest rates of uninsured people in the nation, a statistic exacerbated by state leaders’ refusal to expand Medicaid. About 20% of adults in Washington County, where Metcalfe is located, don’t have health insurance.  

Family planning is a key part of the clinic’s work, as they counsel patients – especially women – on contraceptive methods and field questions about fertility and pregnancy. And now, with the end of legal abortion in Mississippi, the stakes of that work are rising.

“It’s not going to interrupt what we do,” Thomas said of the ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which means abortion will be illegal in almost all cases in Mississippi. But it does spotlight the dire need for contraceptives, pregnancy-related care, and primary care in the poorest part of the poorest country in the United States. 

After the leak of the draft opinion showing the U.S. Supreme Court was poised to overturn Roe, Plan A announced plans to distribute emergency contraception and take-home pregnancy tests to patients. The clinic is also adding ultrasounds and pregnancy- and miscarriage-related services. 

“Mississippi has one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in the country, and banning abortion will lead to an increase in high-risk pregnancies with no plans to reduce the barriers to care faced by pregnant people,” the clinic said in a press release in May. “Plan A will help to fill that gap.”

In the wake of the overturning of Roe, Republican leaders in Mississippi are touting a “new pro-life agenda.” The leaders of the state House and Senate have established committees to recommend plans to help mothers, children and families. 

They have mentioned trying to improve the state’s abysmal foster care, which is the subject of a federal lawsuit, and child support systems. But they have avoided endorsing measures like Medicaid expansion that would make comprehensive health care more affordable and accessible for Mississippians, and that doctors say would make moms, babies and families healthier. Last year the Legislature refused to extend Medicaid coverage for new moms, even as other conservative Deep South states did so.

Attorney General Lynn Fitch, Gov. Tate Reeves, and Speaker Philip Gunn, R-Clinton, have all described the state’s “pregnancy resource centers” as a key way to support pregnant women and new moms. The centers offer ultrasounds and pregnancy tests but generally no other medical services and are not regulated by the health department. And there are only a handful in the Delta; the closest one to Metcalfe is in Cleveland, a 45-minute drive away. 

While state leaders hold press conferences celebrating the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Roby and Thomas keep seeing their patients. 

Metcalfe is a regular stop on their rotation through the Delta: They visit every fourth Tuesday, rain or shine, at the invitation of Rev. Arthur Thomas, head of the town’s Mayoral Health Council.

On a Tuesday afternoon, Arthur Thomas sat inside Metcalfe’s City Hall, a squat brick building, working the polls for a runoff primary election in which no one so far had voted. Thomas said he had wanted the mobile unit to come to Metcalfe because many residents are low-income, and medical facilities in Greenville aren’t accessible without a car.  

“It should be a right for everyone to have it,” Thomas said of health care. “But everyone can’t have it, and that’s where Plan A clinic comes in.”

Plan A’s mobile clinic is parked in Metcalfe, Miss., Tuesday, June 28, 2022. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today

When Caroline Weinberg – a New Yorker with an M.D. and a background in public health – first conceived of Plan A, the goal was to help meet needs for family planning care in rural, underserved communities.

Mississippi has one of the country’s highest rates of unplanned pregnancy. In 2020, it claimed the highest rate of teen pregnancy. The state has the highest infant mortality rate in the country. It also has a high overall maternal mortality rate, and Black Mississippians are nearly three times likelier than white Mississippians to die of a pregnancy-related complication. 

For years, the state’s federally funded family planning offerings have fallen short. Until early 2022, the state health department got the grant to administer the program and used it to provide services at the county health departments. A report commissioned by the department to evaluate its own work found serious problems: Long wait times for appointments, inaccurate information about payment, clinics running out of condoms, and patients being told that they couldn’t choose what contraceptive method they got because “it is up to what the doctor wants.”

Just as reproductive health can’t be separated from health care more generally, barriers to accessing family planning are often the same reasons people struggle to get care at all. 

Mississippi has one of the country’s highest rates of people who lack health insurance, at about 12%. The state ranks 49th in primary care doctors per capita, and a 2019 report found that about half of the state’s rural hospitals were at risk of closing. And while Washington County is home to four OB/GYNs, many Delta counties have none. 

“We’ve fallen into this trap of making it seem like women’s health is a specialty,” Weinberg said. “That’s part of the issue of rural health care – it’s like, ‘Go talk to your lady doctor about that issue.’ If it’s hard for you to get to the doctor, there’s no reason that everybody shouldn’t be talking about this.”

Mississippi health news you can’t get anywhere else.

So while providing reproductive health care is a priority, Plan A offers as many services as it can. Staff check blood pressure and blood sugar, test for HIV, perform mammograms and pap smears, and provide referrals to providers whose services are as close to free as possible. It costs about $700,000 to run the clinic in Mississippi each year. In the first five months of 2022, the clinic saw 642 patients. 

“They come in for one thing, we end up treating them for a whole lot of different things,” Thomas said. “They come in for blood pressure or blood sugar. Then when they start talking, they’re talking about, my feet are swelling, my back hurting. So we have our nurse practitioner come in and go a little bit further.”

About 75% of their patients do not have health insurance. 

Roby and Thomas are both Delta natives: Thomas of Greenville, right next to Metcalfe, and Roby of Isola, about an hour away. 

The daughter of a teacher and a parks commissioner, Thomas always wanted to stay in the Delta. She worked for the federal government for 15 years.

“I kind of worked my way through the Delta and saw a lot of the problems we have through no fault of the people here,” she said. “A lot of times the trust comes into play – everybody wants to study the Mississippi Delta and everything that goes on, but once the money is gone, people are just left with what they had already.”

Roby initially applied to Plan A as a driver and now serves as a community health worker, too. She spends her free time riding with a motorcycle club; in Metcalfe, she wore a T-shirt from a rally in Perry, Georgia. 

Their 230-square-foot mobile clinic consists of two exam rooms, a small bathroom, and a lab space with a minifridge. The walls are decorated with photographs of Delta scenes: cypress lakes and wind-swept fields. The space is efficient, with drawers under the exam tables labeled to indicate they hold patient gowns and speculums. It smells like the citrus disinfectant Thomas and Roby use to wipe everything down at the start and end of each day. 

When patients arrive, they climb the stairs to the unit and pick up an intake form listing the clinic’s services. 

In Metcalfe, some people take their clipboard over to the grocery store next door to stand in the air conditioning while they fill out the paperwork.

At Frank’s Quick Stop, in business for 37 years, the counter is stacked with pink pickled eggs, pickled pigs’ feet and hot dill pickles. There used to be other places to buy snacks and some groceries in town, but they didn’t last, and now Frank’s is referred to in Metcalfe as “the store.” All day, people walk in and out to chat and buy cold drinks or a $5.89 fish sandwich. 

Talk turns to the Delta’s troubles. The region’s population has been falling for decades. Washington County, for example, has lost a third of its residents since 1990. Factories have closed. There are few jobs. 

Frank’s was once featured in an Associated Press article about the Delta culinary phenomenon of Kool-Aid pickles, and a print now hangs by the door. The lead photograph shows a young woman, the owner’s niece, smiling behind the counter at Frank’s. She has since moved away. 

Metcalfe Alderwoman Etta Christon Washington, whose brother owns VNV Sports Grill, believes her hometown has become less self-sufficient than when she was born in 1964. The Delta can’t depend on the government, she says: Too much red tape, and in recent years the health department closed two of its three clinics in the county. 

She describes herself as a resource center, always on the lookout for opportunities to meet needs in Metcalfe, from food to transportation. Plan A is one of those opportunities. 

“I was surprised, because I had no idea that there was such services … I had no idea that you could do pap smears and everything on the mobile clinic,” Washington said of the first time she learned about Plan A. “It was mind blowing.”

Desiree Norwood, program coordinator for Plan A, prepares for patients to arrive at the Plan A clinic in Louise, Miss., Friday, July 1, 2022. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today

Down the block from Plan A and Frank’s, 48-year-old Beverly Peterson sat outside her home with a few relatives, sipping sodas in the shade. Everyone had some experience with the clinic, whether they’d gotten a COVID vaccine a few months earlier or, in Peterson’s case, a free mammogram.

Without the mobile clinic, she said, “I probably wouldn’t have taken one, because I couldn’t afford it.”

Peterson, a lifelong resident of Metcalfe, was on Medicaid until her daughter turned 18 about four years ago. Since then, she has gone to the doctor every six months, paying $50 out of pocket to get her thyroid checked, because she knows if she doesn’t, the potential consequences are serious. 

Oher needs go unmet. Her anxiety medication isn’t expensive, but the quick doctor’s visit to get the prescription is a cost she can’t justify, so she’s gone without it for months now.

“If I’m not just really hurting, hurting, I get something over the counter,” she said. “After I got off Medicaid, I just stopped going to the doctor.”

She was grateful for Plan A, but it wasn’t a complete solution. Peterson was trying to figure out how she was going to come up with the money to get a tooth pulled. 

“Put some dentists in there,” she said. “They need a dentist.”

Thomas and Desiree Norwood, Plan A program coordinator and the mayor of Sunflower, said they’ve talked about adding dental and mental health services.

“There’s always going to be more,” Norwood said. 

Plan A’s mobile clinic is parked in Metcalfe, Miss., Tuesday, June 28, 2022. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today

At 5:48 p.m., nearly an hour after the clinic was supposed to close, Roby and Thomas came outside to walk a patient to her car. A regular at Plan A, she had called to find out where they would be. She made it to Metcalfe a little after 5 p.m., but Roby and Thomas didn’t think of turning her away. 

“If they see those stairs, they come up,” Thomas said. “If they come, we’ve got to  see ‘em.”

“For instance, here – we won’t be back for another month,” Roby said. “What if their blood pressure is up?”

It’s not uncommon for the Plan A staff to check someone’s blood pressure and send them directly to the emergency room because they’re at risk of a heart attack. 

With this patient, they had taken their time “educating and talking,” as Roby put it. It’s common for patients to need more than medical services, and Roby and Thomas are happy to connect them with resources and information, like how to call for free transportation as a Medicaid enrollee. They sometimes give patients their personal cell phone numbers so they can call with questions. 

By the time they left Metcalfe, they had seen nine patients and provided every service they offer except for mammograms – a good day, Thomas and Roby agreed.

When the clinic launched in 2021, Plan A staff spent a lot of time meeting with local leaders and trying to find the “movers and shakers” in each Delta town who could help them build relationships. That’s still a key part of their work, but things have changed. 

“Last year, we were calling, calling, calling,” Thomas said. “This year, they’re calling us.”

We continue to keep Mississippians informed because we – like you – love Mississippi.

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by Isabelle Taft, Mississippi Today
July 7, 2022

The end of legal abortion in Mississippi raises the stakes for reproductive and maternal health. This mobile clinic is on the front lines.

by Isabelle Taft, Mississippi Today
July 7, 2022

The clinic – a box perched on wheels and painted with trees and people – sat in the gravel and grass parking lot of a burger and wings joint called VNV Sports Bar and Grill, the only restaurant in Metcalfe, Mississippi. Choosing where to park it in this Delta town of about 1,000 people had not been difficult.

“It’s the main strip in Metcalfe,” said Antoinette Roby, a community health worker and driver at Plan A. The mobile clinic offers pap smears and mammograms, testing for sexually transmitted diseases and COVID-19 vaccines, contraceptives and blood pressure tests– all for free.

Since April 2021, Roby and her colleague Juliet Thomas have criss-crossed the Delta in the clinic, aiming to expand access to primary and reproductive health care in a region where many people hear “clinic” and assume they can’t afford to step inside. 

Mississippi has one of the highest rates of uninsured people in the nation, a statistic exacerbated by state leaders’ refusal to expand Medicaid. About 20% of adults in Washington County, where Metcalfe is located, don’t have health insurance.  

Family planning is a key part of the clinic’s work, as they counsel patients – especially women – on contraceptive methods and field questions about fertility and pregnancy. And now, with the end of legal abortion in Mississippi, the stakes of that work are rising.

“It’s not going to interrupt what we do,” Thomas said of the ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which means abortion will be illegal in almost all cases in Mississippi. But it does spotlight the dire need for contraceptives, pregnancy-related care, and primary care in the poorest part of the poorest country in the United States. 

After the leak of the draft opinion showing the U.S. Supreme Court was poised to overturn Roe, Plan A announced plans to distribute emergency contraception and take-home pregnancy tests to patients. The clinic is also adding ultrasounds and pregnancy- and miscarriage-related services. 

“Mississippi has one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in the country, and banning abortion will lead to an increase in high-risk pregnancies with no plans to reduce the barriers to care faced by pregnant people,” the clinic said in a press release in May. “Plan A will help to fill that gap.”

In the wake of the overturning of Roe, Republican leaders in Mississippi are touting a “new pro-life agenda.” The leaders of the state House and Senate have established committees to recommend plans to help mothers, children and families. 

They have mentioned trying to improve the state’s abysmal foster care, which is the subject of a federal lawsuit, and child support systems. But they have avoided endorsing measures like Medicaid expansion that would make comprehensive health care more affordable and accessible for Mississippians, and that doctors say would make moms, babies and families healthier. Last year the Legislature refused to extend Medicaid coverage for new moms, even as other conservative Deep South states did so.

Attorney General Lynn Fitch, Gov. Tate Reeves, and Speaker Philip Gunn, R-Clinton, have all described the state’s “pregnancy resource centers” as a key way to support pregnant women and new moms. The centers offer ultrasounds and pregnancy tests but generally no other medical services and are not regulated by the health department. And there are only a handful in the Delta; the closest one to Metcalfe is in Cleveland, a 45-minute drive away. 

While state leaders hold press conferences celebrating the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Roby and Thomas keep seeing their patients. 

Metcalfe is a regular stop on their rotation through the Delta: They visit every fourth Tuesday, rain or shine, at the invitation of Rev. Arthur Thomas, head of the town’s Mayoral Health Council.

On a Tuesday afternoon, Arthur Thomas sat inside Metcalfe’s City Hall, a squat brick building, working the polls for a runoff primary election in which no one so far had voted. Thomas said he had wanted the mobile unit to come to Metcalfe because many residents are low-income, and medical facilities in Greenville aren’t accessible without a car.  

“It should be a right for everyone to have it,” Thomas said of health care. “But everyone can’t have it, and that’s where Plan A clinic comes in.”

When Caroline Weinberg – a New Yorker with an M.D. and a background in public health – first conceived of Plan A, the goal was to help meet needs for family planning care in rural, underserved communities.

Mississippi has one of the country’s highest rates of unplanned pregnancy. In 2020, it claimed the highest rate of teen pregnancy. The state has the highest infant mortality rate in the country. It also has a high overall maternal mortality rate, and Black Mississippians are nearly three times likelier than white Mississippians to die of a pregnancy-related complication. 

For years, the state’s federally funded family planning offerings have fallen short. Until early 2022, the state health department got the grant to administer the program and used it to provide services at the county health departments. A report commissioned by the department to evaluate its own work found serious problems: Long wait times for appointments, inaccurate information about payment, clinics running out of condoms, and patients being told that they couldn’t choose what contraceptive method they got because “it is up to what the doctor wants.”

Just as reproductive health can’t be separated from health care more generally, barriers to accessing family planning are often the same reasons people struggle to get care at all. 

Mississippi has one of the country’s highest rates of people who lack health insurance, at about 12%. The state ranks 49th in primary care doctors per capita, and a 2019 report found that about half of the state’s rural hospitals were at risk of closing. And while Washington County is home to four OB/GYNs, many Delta counties have none. 

“We’ve fallen into this trap of making it seem like women’s health is a specialty,” Weinberg said. “That’s part of the issue of rural health care – it’s like, ‘Go talk to your lady doctor about that issue.’ If it’s hard for you to get to the doctor, there’s no reason that everybody shouldn’t be talking about this.”

So while providing reproductive health care is a priority, Plan A offers as many services as it can. Staff check blood pressure and blood sugar, test for HIV, perform mammograms and pap smears, and provide referrals to providers whose services are as close to free as possible. It costs about $700,000 to run the clinic in Mississippi each year. In the first five months of 2022, the clinic saw 642 patients. 

“They come in for one thing, we end up treating them for a whole lot of different things,” Thomas said. “They come in for blood pressure or blood sugar. Then when they start talking, they’re talking about, my feet are swelling, my back hurting. So we have our nurse practitioner come in and go a little bit further.”

About 75% of their patients do not have health insurance. 

Roby and Thomas are both Delta natives: Thomas of Greenville, right next to Metcalfe, and Roby of Isola, about an hour away. 

The daughter of a teacher and a parks commissioner, Thomas always wanted to stay in the Delta. She worked for the federal government for 15 years.

“I kind of worked my way through the Delta and saw a lot of the problems we have through no fault of the people here,” she said. “A lot of times the trust comes into play – everybody wants to study the Mississippi Delta and everything that goes on, but once the money is gone, people are just left with what they had already.”

Roby initially applied to Plan A as a driver and now serves as a community health worker, too. She spends her free time riding with a motorcycle club; in Metcalfe, she wore a T-shirt from a rally in Perry, Georgia. 

Their 230-square-foot mobile clinic consists of two exam rooms, a small bathroom, and a lab space with a minifridge. The walls are decorated with photographs of Delta scenes: cypress lakes and wind-swept fields. The space is efficient, with drawers under the exam tables labeled to indicate they hold patient gowns and speculums. It smells like the citrus disinfectant Thomas and Roby use to wipe everything down at the start and end of each day. 

When patients arrive, they climb the stairs to the unit and pick up an intake form listing the clinic’s services. 

In Metcalfe, some people take their clipboard over to the grocery store next door to stand in the air conditioning while they fill out the paperwork.

At Frank’s Quick Stop, in business for 37 years, the counter is stacked with pink pickled eggs, pickled pigs’ feet and hot dill pickles. There used to be other places to buy snacks and some groceries in town, but they didn’t last, and now Frank’s is referred to in Metcalfe as “the store.” All day, people walk in and out to chat and buy cold drinks or a $5.89 fish sandwich. 

Talk turns to the Delta’s troubles. The region’s population has been falling for decades. Washington County, for example, has lost a third of its residents since 1990. Factories have closed. There are few jobs. 

Frank’s was once featured in an Associated Press article about the Delta culinary phenomenon of Kool-Aid pickles, and a print now hangs by the door. The lead photograph shows a young woman, the owner’s niece, smiling behind the counter at Frank’s. She has since moved away. 

Metcalfe Alderwoman Etta Christon Washington, whose brother owns VNV Sports Grill, believes her hometown has become less self-sufficient than when she was born in 1964. The Delta can’t depend on the government, she says: Too much red tape, and in recent years the health department closed two of its three clinics in the county. 

She describes herself as a resource center, always on the lookout for opportunities to meet needs in Metcalfe, from food to transportation. Plan A is one of those opportunities. 

“I was surprised, because I had no idea that there was such services … I had no idea that you could do pap smears and everything on the mobile clinic,” Washington said of the first time she learned about Plan A. “It was mind blowing.”

Down the block from Plan A and Frank’s, 48-year-old Beverly Peterson sat outside her home with a few relatives, sipping sodas in the shade. Everyone had some experience with the clinic, whether they’d gotten a COVID vaccine a few months earlier or, in Peterson’s case, a free mammogram.

Without the mobile clinic, she said, “I probably wouldn’t have taken one, because I couldn’t afford it.”

Peterson, a lifelong resident of Metcalfe, was on Medicaid until her daughter turned 18 about four years ago. Since then, she has gone to the doctor every six months, paying $50 out of pocket to get her thyroid checked, because she knows if she doesn’t, the potential consequences are serious. 

Oher needs go unmet. Her anxiety medication isn’t expensive, but the quick doctor’s visit to get the prescription is a cost she can’t justify, so she’s gone without it for months now.

“If I’m not just really hurting, hurting, I get something over the counter,” she said. “After I got off Medicaid, I just stopped going to the doctor.”

She was grateful for Plan A, but it wasn’t a complete solution. Peterson was trying to figure out how she was going to come up with the money to get a tooth pulled. 

“Put some dentists in there,” she said. “They need a dentist.”

Thomas and Desiree Norwood, Plan A program coordinator and the mayor of Sunflower, said they’ve talked about adding dental and mental health services.

“There’s always going to be more,” Norwood said. 

At 5:48 p.m., nearly an hour after the clinic was supposed to close, Roby and Thomas came outside to walk a patient to her car. A regular at Plan A, she had called to find out where they would be. She made it to Metcalfe a little after 5 p.m., but Roby and Thomas didn’t think of turning her away. 

“If they see those stairs, they come up,” Thomas said. “If they come, we’ve got to  see ‘em.”

“For instance, here – we won’t be back for another month,” Roby said. “What if their blood pressure is up?”

It’s not uncommon for the Plan A staff to check someone’s blood pressure and send them directly to the emergency room because they’re at risk of a heart attack. 

With this patient, they had taken their time “educating and talking,” as Roby put it. It’s common for patients to need more than medical services, and Roby and Thomas are happy to connect them with resources and information, like how to call for free transportation as a Medicaid enrollee. They sometimes give patients their personal cell phone numbers so they can call with questions. 

By the time they left Metcalfe, they had seen nine patients and provided every service they offer except for mammograms – a good day, Thomas and Roby agreed.

When the clinic launched in 2021, Plan A staff spent a lot of time meeting with local leaders and trying to find the “movers and shakers” in each Delta town who could help them build relationships. That’s still a key part of their work, but things have changed. 

“Last year, we were calling, calling, calling,” Thomas said. “This year, they’re calling us.”

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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We guarantee your cat will love these accessories!

Jul 07, 2022, 05:10 pm
2 min read

Keep your cats healthy, fulfilled and happy by gifting them these cool accessories.

Pets form a unique bond of companionship with us and it is our responsibility to look after their happiness and well-being.

Pampering your furry babies with fun accessories will keep them happy and ensure smart pet-parenting.

If you are a cat parent, keep your cats relaxed by arranging some must-have accessories and making your home a “purrfect” fit for them.

Make sure to buy a cat carrier or crate to carry your kitties while you are on the go.

Opt for a safe and sturdy carrier that has good ventilation and is easy for your cats to get in and out.

You can buy a plastic carrier with a front locking door that offers good accessibility and attached straps to hang on the shoulders.

If you are a cat parent, invest in some sturdy food and water bowls for your four-legged baby.

Opt for bowls that are durable and easy to clean and disinfect. The bottom of the bowls must be rigid to avoid any spillage or leakage.

Avoid plastic bowls and go for non-tip stainless steel ones or ceramic bowls with lead-free glaze.

It’s important to arrange a comfy and cozy napping spot for your feline friend to allow them some relaxation.

You can buy a cat cave for them which is made with eco-friendly and non-toxic materials.

It will keep them cool in the summers and warm in the winters.

It should have a pillow and a soft mat inside for ultimate comfort.

Buy them a collar with an ID tag

One of the most important accessories for your cats is a collar with an ID tag. It will help them get back home in case they are lost.

Remember to include your name, address, and phone number on the ID tag.

Buy a fashionable and comfortable cat collar that won’t irritate their neck.

You can opt for an adjustable one with a reflective exterior.

Cats love to play, and the activity they enjoy the most is pouncing.

Buy some safe, fun, and colorful toys for your cats to stimulate their hunting instincts and keep them healthy and fulfilled.

You can buy them stuffed toys in the shape of mice or fish, a catnip rattle ball, or a fishing pole.

Also, consider bringing home a cat tree.

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Building upon the existing aspects of the fan-favorite NEO Series, the NEO Plus Series promises a 360° self-clean mode that flushes debris off the guard gate and nozzles for easy maintenance. Additionally, all NEO Plus models feature LUXE-Hinge Adjustment Plates, designed to simplify the toilet cleaning process by allowing users to fully flip the bidet upwards for direct access to the bowl and nozzles during routine bathroom upkeep. This first-of-its-kind hinge feature also allows for easy slide-in installation, offering consumers a more streamlined set up process.

“LUXE Bidet was founded with the belief that the luxurious feeling that a bidet adds to a bathroom comes only second to the hygienic benefits it adds to one’s personal care routine, and we’ve made it our mission to ensure this essential tool is accessible for all by offering high quality, yet affordable options,” said Anjum Gupta, President of LUXE Bidet, “With the launch of NEO Plus, we are proud to maintain those core principles while bringing forth innovation that makes our bidets even more convenient for every user.”

The NEO Plus line comes in three models, including:

• NEO 120 Plus: Perfect for beginners and those looking for all foundational bidet features, the 120 Plus is a cold water model equipped with a single wash nozzle along with water pressure & mode selection knobs that are simple to operate. ($49.99)
• NEO 185 Plus: For those looking for a little added luxury, the 185 Plus is a cold water model with an additional nozzle added for a feminine wash feature. It also has the easy-to-operate water pressure & mode selection knobs as well. ($61.99)
• NEO 320 Plus: For those who prefer the feeling of warm water, the 320 Plus comes equipped with the same dual wash nozzles as the 185 Plus, one for rear wash and one for feminine wash, along with a mode selection knob and a lever controlling water temperature & pressure – making your entire usage experience customizable to your exact needs. ($66.99)

All three models come in a variety of accent colors including white, chrome, and rose gold, available for purchase on LUXEBidet.com.

To learn more about the NEO Plus line, along with the brand’s full suite of bidet attachments and associated products, visit www.LUXEBidet.com.

About LUXE Bidet
LUXE Bidet is the leading bidet brand in America, happy to be serving over 1 million customers nationwide. The brand’s vision is to make healthy home hygiene affordable & accessible to everyone. Since 2009, the brand has been pioneering advanced bidet technology through innovation, functionality and design. For products and information, visit www.LUXEBidet.com.

SOURCE LUXE Bidet

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has linked a listeria outbreak responsible for at least 22 hospitalizations and one death to ice cream sold in Florida.

Public health and regulatory officials in several states, working with the CDC and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), identified ice cream made by Big Olaf Creamery as a potential source of the outbreak. Big Olaf Creamery is voluntarily contacting retailers to ask them not to see its ice cream products until further notice, the CDC said in a July 2 statement.

“Consumers who have Big Olaf Creamery brand ice cream at home should throw away any remaining product,” the CDC said. People should also clean and disinfect any surfaces, containers, ice cream scoops, or other serving utensils that may have touched Big Olaf ice cream products, the CDC advised.

“Listeria symptoms usually start within two weeks after eating food contaminated with listeria,” the CDC said in a June 30 statement describing the outbreak. Symptoms can start the same day, or up to 70 days later, the CDC said.

To pinpoint the source of the outbreak, public health officials interviewed people with listeria infections to determine what foods they ate in the month before they got sick, the CDC said. Out of 17 people interviewed so far, 14 individuals reported eating ice cream.

Not everyone recalled specifics about what type of ice cream they had. But among 13 people who did remember details, six said they either ate Big Olaf Creamery ice cream or getting ice cream at places that might have been supplied by Big Olaf Creamery, the CDC said.

Big Olaf Creamery, based in in Sarasota, Florida, voluntarily began contacting retail locations to recommend against selling their ice cream products on July 1, the CDC said. The investigation is ongoing.

Who Is Most at Risk?

Certain people are at high risk for listeria infections, including pregnant individuals, newborns, those over 65, and patients with weakened immune systems, the CDC said in June. While other people can get infected, they don’t usually get seriously ill.

In the current outbreak, half the patients were at least 72 years old. Five people were pregnant when they got sick, and one person lost the pregnancy, the CDC said.

“If you are at higher risk for listeria infection and have symptoms, especially if you recently traveled to Florida, talk to your healthcare provider,” the CDC advised.

As of June 29, 2022, a total of 23 people infected with the outbreak strain of Listeria monocytogenes have been reported in 10 states: Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. Twelve of the people lived in Florida.

Among the 10 people with information who didn’t live in Florida, eight people had traveled there in the month before getting sick, the CDC said.

“The true number of sick people in an outbreak is likely higher than the number reported, and the outbreak may not be limited to the states with known illnesses,” the CDC said. “In addition, recent illnesses may not yet be reported, as it usually takes three to four weeks to determine if a sick person is part of an outbreak.”

RELATED: What Is Listeria Infection?

The bacteria L. monocytogenes can cause a serious infection known as listeriosis. While many people have only brief, mild illness when they’re infected, high-risk individuals may develop severe infections in the bloodstream or brain that can be life-threatening.

Many people with listeriosis will experience symptoms such as fever, muscle aches, headache, stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance, and convulsions, according to the CDC. Pregnant people may experience some flu-like symptoms, but are also at risk for miscarriage, stillbirth, premature deliveries, or life-threatening infections for their newborns.

Listeriosis can be diagnosed with a simple lab test and treated with antibiotics.

Foods responsible for listeria outbreaks have shifted over the years, according to the CDC.

In the 1990s, most cases were linked to contaminated deli meats and hot dogs. These days, listeria is most often tied to dairy products and produce, with recent outbreaks traced to soft cheeses, celery, sprouts, cantaloupe, and ice cream.

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RURAL Australians returning from Bali or other parts of Indonesia are being urged to consider spending an extra day in a capital city before returning home to reduce the risk of carrying FMD into rural areas.

Calls are also mounting in the heavily-exposed agriculture sector for the Federal Government to urgently introduce disinfectant foot baths at airports as a further barrier to prevent the incursion of a disease that would bring Australia’s livestock and rural economy to its knees.

FMD is a highly contagious, fast spreading disease. An outbreak in Australia would cause an animal welfare crisis and the immediate loss of access to a range of valuable export markets.

Indonesian-based livestock vet and Beef Central analyst Ross Ainsworth described the danger of transmission to Australia now that FMD has spread to the major tourist hotspot of Bali as “extreme”.

“The only sensible approach is to put disinfectant foot baths in Bali and Australian airports for tourists to walk through onto and off the plane,” he said.

“I can’t understand why this measure is being resisted considering the cost/benefit considerations.”

Nationals Leader and shadow agriculture minister David Littleproud also joined the growing chorus calling for footbaths at airports today, saying they are the “only way to effectively mitigate the vulnerability” Australia now faces.

Australia has previously been regarded as “Fortress Australia” but recent foreign disease and pest incursions including varroa mite, Japanese Encephalitis and Fall Armyworm have demonstrated that our island nation’s defences are not impregnable.

In response to the news that FMD is now in Bali, Agriculture Minister Murray Watt and Chief Veterinary Officer Dr Mark Schipp have this week announced that border biosecurity measures have been ramped up.

Just briefed by some of Australia’s leading biosecurity experts on latest re foot and mouth outbreak in Bali & best practice measures for inbound travel. Thanks to @DAFFgov @CSIRO @CEBRA_UoM @MarkSchipp for your advice. Our Govt is determined to keep our livestock industry safe.

— Senator Murray Watt (@MurrayWatt) July 7, 2022

These involved new targeted operations at major airports servicing travel from Indonesia to check a wider range of passengers who could be contaminated with FMD or be carrying contaminated goods and assessment of all passengers on flights from Indonesia, with high risk passengers identified for intervention.

Specfic measures included locating biosecurity detector dogs in Darwin and Cairns Airports, additional signage and the distribution of flyers at major airports, informing travellers of FMD risk and precautions, expanded social media campaigns, additional training of airport biosecurity staff, enhancement of mail profiling and inspections, and boarding by biosecurity officers on arriving flights from Indonesia.

However disinfectant footbaths in airports are not among the measures announced so far.

Minister Watt told the ABC  last night that he would not force travellers to walk through foot baths, noting many would be wearing thongs, adding that the disinfectant required would be too caustic on exposed skin.

Bali is one of the rare places where tourists come into regular contact with cattle that are present on many streets, as Ross Ainsworth has previously explained.

It is one of the many reasons why people throughout Australia’s livestock sector are gravely concerned about the risk of transmision posed by returning travellers.

One senior red meat industry figure suggested to Beef Central that travellers returning from Indonesia to rural areas in Australia should consider the additional precaution of spending one more day in the capital city to which they return before travelling home, to reduce the chance of any trace of FMD being active when they travel back into an agricultural area.

Some sources have told Beef Central that FMD can live on the clothing and body of travellers for up to 48 hours, particularly in the form of manure on boots or in moist areas such as the nostrils.

A Department of Agriculture spokesperson said Australia’s AUSVETPLAN for FMD states that the risk of prolonged carriage of the FMD virus on travellers is considered to be low.

The same source states there is little evidence to suggest that such people play a significant role in transmitting FMD under field conditions.

Dr Ainsworth’s advice as a practicing vet with decades of first-hand experience working through northern Australia and south east Asia is that people returning from Bali to Australian farms should be taking additional precautions.

“My choice if I was a rural person returning from Bali to my farm is that I would launder and scrub everything before getting on the plane then work on my shoes and other clothing and equipment that might have been contaminated from my hotel to the airport when I arrive in Australia.

“But spending longer in the city after arrival would be effective too.”

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But it turns out that I’m not the only one who doesn’t really clean their toilet brush. On social media, we polled our users on how often they cleaned their toilet brush, and around 77 percent of you bravely admitted to never cleaning it.

I don’t need to consult an expert to know that those of us who have never cleaned a toilet brush should probably be doing it more often, but exactly how often should we be cleaning the brush and when is the right time to replace it? Here’s the verdict from experts.

When should we clean our toilet brushes?
Toilet brushes should be cleaned after each time they are used so that any germs that are picked up in the toilet do not sit in your bathroom, says Vera Peterson, president of cleaning company Molly Maid. 

You can clean it on a weekly basis if you have a weekly routine of cleaning your bathroom, says Kadi Dulude, founder of Wizard of Homes, a cleaning business based in New York City.

When should we replace a toilet brush?
Some would suggest replacing your plastic toilet brush every six months, but if you clean yours regularly, there should be no need to replace it until the bristles become discolored, get bent out of shape, or fall out, or if your brush is smelly even after cleaning, says Stephanie Canal, senior product manager of cleaning tools at consumer products company Oxo.

What’s the best way to clean a toilet brush?
For a quick cleaning, use a disinfectant spray for the brush and a disinfectant wipe for the handle. Afterward, rinse the toilet brush with hot water and let the brush drip-dry—you can place it between the toilet seat and the toilet base so that the seat is holding it in place—before placing it back in the holder, Vera says. 

For a deeper cleaning, you can soak the brush in a mixture of equal parts bleach and water.

What about the toilet brush holder, which can also be disgusting (my words, not the experts’)?
Similar to the cleaning of the toilet brush, the toilet brush holder should regularly be sprayed with disinfectant and then rinsed with hot water. For more thorough cleaning, you can soak the holder in equal amounts of bleach and hot water, Vera says.

Anything else we need to look out for when cleaning?
When you’re using chemicals to clean your bathroom, open the windows and doors for improved ventilation, says Chris Regan, an engineer who oversees the testing of toilets at CR. 

And if you’re using bleach to clean your toilet brush, make sure it doesn’t get mixed with cleaning products that contain ammonia or acids—bleach doesn’t react well with either, and the combination will produce toxic fumes. In general, there are a lot of different chemicals in cleaning solutions, and you should be careful not to mix two different ones together.

Are there any good alternatives to cleaning a toilet, apart from using a toilet brush?
For a quick cleaning of your toilet, a toilet brush is still pretty handy, Kadi says.

But if you want to give your toilet a deep clean, you can sprinkle baking soda in the bowl and use a sponge to scrub the toilet. Just make sure you aren’t using the sponge to clean other parts of your home—you definitely wouldn’t want that sponge to be used to clean your kitchen sink, for instance.

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Pepper the robot is programmed with hundreds of jokes, and if you don’t believe it, just ask her. The residents of the Estates nursing home in Roseville sure did as the robot made its national debut as a personal care assistant.

“Do you want to hear more jokes?” the robot asked.

“Yes!” the semicircle of elderly adults replied.

“I went on a date with a Roomba last week,” the robot said. “It totally sucked.”

Good thing the upright, 4-foot-high robot isn’t giving up its day job, which from here on will be to interact with residents, remind them to eat and exercise and react to their facial expressions or tone of voice.

Pepper is one of two robots introduced at the nursing home by researchers from the University of Minnesota Duluth, along with a 2-foot-high robot called NAO designed to lead residents in group exercises and dance routines. The goal is to provide technological support to a nursing home industry that is seeing more residents and more complex cases of dementia at a time when it is losing staff and expertise, said Arshia Khan, a UMD computer science professor.

“If we don’t look for alternative solutions and think outside the box, our elders will suffer,” Khan said.

UMD researchers have been preparing for years to modify the SoftBank Robotics machines for use in nursing homes, but they accelerated the timing amid the pandemic. Isolation protocols to protect highly vulnerable nursing home residents reduced their social interactions, accentuating how robots could make a difference, Khan said.

“Humans can spread infection easily,” Khan said, “and robots, once you disinfect the robots, you can send them from one person to another without the fear of infections.”

As designed, Pepper will independently roam the nursing home and approach residents to see if they have health concerns or need company. Facial recognition software allows the robot to talk with residents by name and even detect their moods. Wristbands on residents send wireless biometric data to the robot, which can then detect when the residents are off their eating or sleeping schedules, laboring to breathe or feeling sad.

“Would you like to revisit some of your memories from the past?” the robot said Wednesday, giving a demonstration of its reminiscence therapy mode. When uploaded with pictures and information, it can help residents remember some of their favorite moments and augment them with favorite songs.

“Graduation,” Khan said, picking from a menu of memories on Pepper’s screen.

“Great,” Pepper replied, its black eyes widening to convey enthusiasm. “You were such a great student. Remember the day of your graduation?”

UMD’s team includes nurses, psychologists and ethicists, who addressed the social concerns about introducing robots to take on sometimes personal and intimate caregiver roles. A guiding principal was that the robots provide new social outlets, but not at the expense of face-to-face human contact.

“It’s not replacing employees or reducing the need for human touch or human interaction,” said Dan Pollock, assistant commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Human Services. “It’s adding something that has the potential to improve lives and maybe take over some very mundane things like reminding residents when it’s time to eat or go to the bathroom or that kind of thing.”

The NAO and Pepper robots will soon be placed in seven additional nursing homes in Minnesota operated by Monarch Healthcare Management. A $2 million grant from the Department of Human Services hastened their deployment.

Robots can offer reminders to residents to eat or put on masks without getting frustrated or raising their voices. Khan said they also can talk about the old days with residents without ever getting tired — but for the need once a night to retreat to their self-charging docks.

Pepper also doesn’t tire of jokes.

“I went into Starbucks the other day, and one of the baristas asked me if I wanted any coffee. Can you believe that? Me,” the robot said, opening its palms to convey surprise. “I said, ‘No, I don’t need coffee. I’m already completely wired.’ “

Laughs and groans filled the room.

Sometimes Pepper’s high-pitched voice made the punchline hard to hear, leaving only the robot laughing. Other times it struggled to hear a response when it asked if it should tell more jokes.

Khan said adjustments will be made as needed and that the robot’s use of sensor data to respond to individual resident needs would be phased in over the next week.

Nursing homes in Japan have been more aggressive in using robots to augment care services, but they are growing in use among U.S. facilities as well. Monarch has tinkered with service-oriented robots that deliver drinks to residents and clean the floors.

Personal interactions between staff and residents should become more meaningful if the new robots can take on menial tasks, said Dan Strittmater, Monarch’s vice president of operations. If the NAO robot can lead group exercises, then staff can work closely with individual residents who need help with the movements. Or they can be down the hall addressing other residents’ needs.

“I want to put them to work for the staff so that the staff can have higher quality face-to-face contact with the residents,” he said.

Resident Mary West enjoyed the robot’s jokes and was looking forward to testing its level of personal interaction.

“I’m excited just to talk to her,” West said, “tell her all about my kids and hope that she remembers.”

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Here’s a daily map of coronavirus cases in Arizona, broken down by county.

The numbers were updated July 6.

Gallery: A year of the Pandemic in Tucson

Photos: A Year of the Pandemic in Tucson

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

Pop Cycle, 422 N 4th Ave. March 20, 2020.

Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

Roxanne Lee, manager of the Tucson Medical Center cath lab, stands with nurses and other colleagues in Lifegain Park during a memorial ceremony to remember those who have died of the Coronavirus (COVID-19), on Jan. 19, 2021.

Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

Most of the students are learning remotely (screen at the back of the room) in Alyssa Keri’s math class at Catalina Foothills High School in the Catalina Foothills School District, Tucson, on Feb. 4, 2021.

Rick Wiley / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

Costco shoppers line up early at the Tucson Marketplace at The Bridges in Tucson on March 14, 2020.

Rick Wiley / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

Volunteer Bill Rauch loads food supplies into the trunk of a car at the Community Food Bank at 3003 S. Country Club Road, on March 18, 2020. The food bank started a drive through pick up service to allow for social distancing in response to Coronavirus disease (COVID-19.)

Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

A pedestrian walks by the shuttered doors and windows of the Surly Wench Pub, the day after the city’s drinking establishments were shut down due to COVID-19 distancing measures, March 18, 2020, Tucson, Ariz.

Kelly Presnell / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

Victor Sanchez, a cook at Robert’s Restaurant, holds a sign up to let to let passing drivers know they are still open at 3301 E Grant Road, on March 19, 2020. Restaurants and other small businesses are taking huge losses as people self quarantine and self distance to diminish the spread of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19.)

Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

Banner UMC’s drive up system is for emergency room triage for a variety of illnesses and is not for random testing for COVID-19. It has been put in place to keep crowds from the ER and protect the health of patients and staff.

Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

A line grows outside the doors to Trader Joe’s at Swan and Grant as an employee limits customers entering the store to one-out one-in, March 20, 2020, Tucson, Ariz.

Kelly Presnell / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

A group of friends from St. Louis enjoy their lunch along Sentinel Peak after a 40-mile bike ride on March 20, 2020. The cycling friends planned their trip to Tucson months ago and decided to keep their vacation plans. They arrived on March 1st and leave this weekend. For the past three weeks they’ve been cycling through Saguaro National Park, up Mt. Lemmon, Kitt Peak and The Loop. On Friday they got takeout from Seis Kitchen and their bicycle touring company set up tables and chairs for them. They felt they self-quaratined with just the six of them during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak.

Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

Madelyn Hardy takes a phone-in order behind the locked doors at Renee’s Organic Oven, March 20, 2020, Tucson, Ariz. The restaurant is now taking no cash, doesn’t allow customers into the building and leaves bagged orders on an outside table for diners to pick up.

Kelly Presnell / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

A largely closed and nearly empty Park Place Mall early in the afternoon following COVID-19 restrictions, March 20, 2020, Tucson, Ariz.

Kelly Presnell / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

Sarah Lang views responses from her fifth-grade students while teaching remotely on Google classroom at Centennial Elementary School in the Flowing Wells School District, Tucson, on March 20, 2020, after the shutdown of schools due to the pandemic.

Rick Wiley / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

Marina Cornelius, owner of Floor Polish Dance + Fitness, teaches her Cardio Party-o class via Periscope to her students on March 20, 2020. Cornelius says this is the first time she’s trying to livestream classes and is learning as she goes.

Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

Jo Schneider stands in the empty outdoor seating area of La Cocina located at 201 N. Court Avenue, on March 26, 2020.

Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

A woman walks along a nearly empty street in downtown Nogales, Arizona, on March 24, 2020.

Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

Dana Reed-Kane, co-owner of Reed’s Compounding Pharmacy, 2729 E Speedway Blvd., pours a finished batch of hand sanitizer into a bottle at her store on March 27, 2020. Kane is making gallons of hand sanitizer and selling it to the public each day as part of a movement among such pharmacies to help out with the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

Michelle Don Carlos, founder of Mending Souls, sews masks in her home on Tucson’s west side, on March 25, 2020. She and other volunteers are producing masks for emergency responders using anti-viral fabric donated by local hospitals.

Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

Vanessa Richards, 18, left, and Ella Dotson, 17, take a selfie as their friend, Camilla Hamilton, 17, gets her photo taken by Vanessa’s mother, Chrissi, along Scott Ave. in downtown Tucson on March 31, 2020. Due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic the rest of the schoolyear has been canceled. Richards, Dotson and Hamilton are seniors at Marana High School and will not have a formal graduation ceremony. The trio came to downtown to get photos of themselves in their caps and gowns.

Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

A dinosaur statue over the doors of MATS Dojo at 5929 E. 22nd St., sports an athletic cup for a face mask in the second week of COVID-19 restrictions, March 31, 2020, Tucson, Ariz.

Kelly Presnell / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

Raj Paudel hands a bag of food to a customer at Govinda’s to-go-tent located at 711 E. Blacklidge Drive, on April 1, 2020.

Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

Angel Perez and Dan Hawk perform from Perez’s balcony, giving the neighborhood a COVID-19-isolation style concert from his balcony, April 1, 2020, Tucson, Ariz.

Kelly Presnell / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

Tessa DeConcini, senior at University High School, poses for a portrait with her prom dress and graduation cap at University High School, 421 N. Arcadia Ave., in Tucson, Ariz., on April 1, 2020. DeConcini, along with many other high school students, will miss out on prom festivities as well as their graduation ceremony due Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19).

Rebecca Sasnett / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

Dr. Liz Almil chats with one of her group from afar as members of the Tucson Cancer Conquerors distribute exercise gear, apparel, citrus and coffee during a handout at Brandy Fenton Park, April 11, 2020, Tucson, Ariz. The group is trying to find ways to keep their members exercising despite being forced into isolation by COVID-19 restrictions.

Kelly Presnell / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

Rachel Huante greets her son Zeddicus Atherton as he trots out the door ahead of Lanee Pender carrying his sister Xena Atherton, part of the the new procedure of no parents inside the building at Kids First Preschool, April 15, 2020, Tucson, Ariz.

Kelly Presnell / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

Cheri Carr grimaces as she receives a nasal swab while getting tested for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at a drive-thru testing site at Escalera Health & Wellness, 2224 N. Craycroft Rd., on April 17, 2020. Patients can receive a COVID-19 and an antibody test.

Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

Dalia Meshirer waves to a friend as the Golder Ranch Fire District trucks begin to roll by as dozens drive by her home to wish her a happy eighth birthday, April 2, 2020, Tucson, Ariz.

Kelly Presnell / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

A sign strapped to the median at 6th Street and Campbell Avenue gives southbound motorists a little pep-talk in the COVID-19 times, April 23, 2020, Tucson, Ariz.

Kelly Presnell / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

Kitchen manger Koa Hoffmann tosses dough while working up a crust for a call-in order as he and few others keep cooking at Bear Canyon Pizza despite COVID-19 restrictions, April 22, 2020, Tucson, Ariz.

Kelly Presnell / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

Jesse James Tucker, owner and trainer at Tucson Rising Phoenix Fitness and Defense, records a video response on techniques for one of his members outside his home in Tucson, Ariz., on April 14, 2020.

Rebecca Sasnett / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

Kyria Sabin Waugaman, right, pilates instructor at Body Works in Tucson, and one of her teachers, Alessangra Lima, host an online workout class at Body Works, 1980 E. River Rd., in Tucson, Ariz., on April 17, 2020.

Rebecca Sasnett / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

Homer Cass, left, talks to his son, Richard, middle, and grandson, Jason, 22, through a window at Tucson Medical Center on April 27, 2020. The hospital is making adjustments during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic to now allow visitors. Upon entry everyone’s temperature is taken and then friends and family members can use their cell phones to talk to their loved ones through a window for 15 minutes.

Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

Emily Wolfgang, manager at Little Anthony’s Diner, talks with a customer during the first day of Little Anthony’s Diner Carhop at Little Anthony’s Diner, 7010 E. Broadway Blvd., in Tucson, Ariz., on April 28, 2020. Little Anthony’s Diner, in response to the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19), started an old fashioned 1950’s carhop. “It’s been a long time since we had a carhop,” said Tony Terry, president and owner of Little Anthony’s Diner and The Gaslight Theater. “It fits our life right not.” Little Anthony’s Diner Carhop runs from 11am to 8pm Monday through Sunday. Customers can park in designated parking spots and order and pay for their food from the safety of their car, said Terry. Employees, dressed in 1950’s attire with masks and gloves, will come out to check on customers and deliver drinks and food on trays, which resemble trays used in the 1950’s that can attach to car windows. There is a Carhop menu, which include burgers, salads and shakes, but customers can order other items off the menu. DJ Phil, Little Anthony’s Diner DJ, will play music that can be heard though speakers outside. “We may keep it after the virus,” added Terry.

Rebecca Sasnett / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

Alex Swain, a member of Beloved in the Desert – Tucson’s chapter of the Episcopal Service Corps, carries bags of groceries to the home of an elderly man, on April 3, 2020. Swain and his housemates have volunteered to shop for elderly and at risk populations as people quarantine and stay at home during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

Mike Pfander, left, and his wife Jeanne talk with Mike’s mother Margaret Pfander from the service driveway just outside Margaret’s apartment in Villa Hermosa, April 25, 2020, Tucson, Ariz. With the COVID19 lockdowns relatives have to meet without breaking isolation protocols, through windows or over walls.

Kelly Presnell / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

Ralph Acosta, valedictorian of the Amphitheater High School senior class, is greeted at his home near 22nd Street and 12th Avenue by principal Jon Lansa in Tucson on May 1, 2020. Acosta will speak during Amphi’s video graduation ceremony.

Rick Wiley / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

Detective Mary Pekas and Lt. Michelle Pickrom carry trays of food as they deliver meals with Mobile Meals of Southern Arizona, on April 29, 2020. Police officers with Tucson Police Department are volunteering while off duty with the program to allow for elderly volunteers to stay at home during the epidemic.

Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

Stylist Rahnay Curtis, left, and owner Jennifer Ball at CDO Barbershop on May 8, 2020, in Tucson.

Rick Wiley / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

A nurse sporting a “Save Lives” mask takes part in a car procession honk-a-thon driving by Carondelet St. Mary’s Hospital after departing from the Safeway across the street, on Jan. 12, 2021.

Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

Tucson Fire paramedics roll a gurney through a tent setup outside the Carondelet St. Joseph’s Hospital’s emergency room, on April 14, 2020. The tents are used to screen staff and patients for potential Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) before entering the hospital.

Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

Catalina Foothills High School graduates throw their hats in the air as they are videoed on the stage on the football field at Catalina Foothills High School, 4300 E. Sunrise Dr., in Tucson, Ariz., on May 11, 2020. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Catalina Foothills High School is videoing all 415 graduates individually over three days crossing the stage with their diploma cover. Small groups of graduates are escorted toward the stage and stand next to cones set apart for social distancing. After video and still pictures, graduates are given a t-shirt as they leave. “Its an amazing amount of work and planning, but our grads are worth it,” said Julie Farbarik, director of Alumni and Community Relations at Catalina Foothills School District.

Rebecca Sasnett / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

Lunchtime is normally standing room only at R&R Pizza Express, 13,905 N. Sandario Road, Marana. But it was sparsely attended on May 11, 2020, as the state allowed restaurants to re-open their dining rooms. Owner Linda Molitor carefully spaced tables to maintain social distancing for dining-in.

Rick Wiley / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

Jordan Wentzel works on a customer’s return at DSW located at 7191 E. Broadway, on May 12, 2020. Shoes tried on and returned by customers are cleaned with disinfectant and then stored for three days before being put back on the floor.

Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

Dr. Susan McMahon, left, lifts a healthy Camille Keicher as mother Audrey gives a reassuring nudge during Camille’s six-month well-visit at Mesquite Pediatrics, 2350 N. Kibler Place, Tucson, on May 15, 2020.

Rick Wiley / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

Carolina Castillo, house keeping staff member, wipes down a chair and table in the food court at Park Place Mall, 5870 E. Broadway Blvd., in Tucson, Ariz. on May 19, 2020. Malls reopened today under CDC guidelines and Gov. Ducey’s new rules for businesses due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Park Place Mall has signs throughout the mall reminding customers to keep a six feet distance as well as hand sanitizer stations near each entrance. About half of the tables in the food court have been removed to allow for social distances as well as less than half of the stores have opened with new guidelines. Of the stores open, only 10 customers are allowed to shop in each store at a time.

Rebecca Sasnett / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

The B Gates are largely empty on the Friday afternoon before Memorial Day, less than a dozen people waiting for flights at Tucson International Airport, May 22, 2020, Tucson, Ariz.

Kelly Presnell / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

Brian McKinley carts out the extra chairs for temporary storage after the seating had been rearranged to meet COVID19 restrictions at Rincon Presbyterian Church, May 21, 2020, Tucson, Ariz. Houses of worship are searching for ways to adapt to the new reality.

Kelly Presnell / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

Ernie Villalobos, general manger of Roadhouse Cinemas, talks with returning employees about some of the new safety measures at Roadhouse Cinemas, 4811 E. Grant Rd., in Tucson, Ariz. on June 9, 2020. Roadhouse Cinemas will reopen on Wednesday June 10 at 3:15 p.m. with new safety measures in place due to the Coronavirus pandemic. The new safety measures include plexiglass set up in front of cashier stations, informational signs placed through out the theater as well as signs on the floor indicating 6-feet distances. Each of the nine theaters will be at 50% capacity to allow for distancing between seats.

Rebecca Sasnett / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

Fatuma Mohamud, employee, walk past two plexiglass stands infant of registers at Funtasticks, 221 E. Wetmore Rd., in Tucson, Ariz. on June 17, 2020. Funtasticks has reopened with new safety procedures in response to the Coronavirus pandemic. All attractions are open with equipment being cleaned after ever use, social distancing signs and plexiglass placed in front of registers.

Rebecca Sasnett / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

Students in the “Let’s Spin” class ride their stationary bikes outdoors at Let’s Sweat, 439 N 6th Ave., on August 19, 2020. Soleil Chiquette, owner of the fitness studio and gym, says she moved her classes outdoors and limited class sizes in order to adhere to coronavirus disease guidelines. She’s had to cancel some classes that involve students to be indoors. Chiquette says an app was created for her business when the pandemic first started so that members can have access to fitness classes and challenges.

Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

Cafeteria worker Francis Fontes sorts chicken nuggets into bags for grab-and-go distribution use at the Tucson Unified School District-Food Services building located at 2150 E. 15th Street, on Sept. 23, 2020. The TUSD Food Services Department has continued to provide services for students and families throughout the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic by distributing thousands of meals a week for students. In addition to the daily grab-and-go distribution throughout the city, the district has implemented an alternative weekly pickup of a week’s worth of meals (including breakfast, lunch, and five days of snacks) at the TUSD Food Services Department Central Facility off of 15th street.

Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

Alyssa Cossey, conductor and director of the University Community Chorus (UCC), sets up for a webinar series she is directing from her home on September 8, 2020. The webinar takes place twice a month for the school semester. Cossey wanted to create something for people to participate in during this lack of physical choir performances and rehearsals due to the coronavirus disease pandemic. The series is free and open to the public.

Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

Music director Eric Holtan leads the True Concord Choir during rehearsal for their upcoming performance, “The Nurturer – Brahms Requiem,” at Dove of Peace Lutheran Church, 665 W. Rollercoaster Road, on Oct. 19, 2020.

Rick Wiley / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

Eli Hyland, left, 78, starts to form a heart with her hands while watching her daughter Karen Shea form a heart during their outdoor visit at Elderhaven Assisted Living, 2501 N. Soldier Trail, in Tucson, Ariz., on October 22, 2020. They started making hearts with their hands during their window visits and it has stuck, said Shea. Shea was able to visit her mother through window visits during the pandemic but recently Shea was able to visit her mom in an outdoor setting under strict protocols. They were required to wear masks, get their temps taken, maintain a six-foot distance at all times and were not allowed to touch each other.

Rebecca Sasnett / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

Tiana Hair, PCC psychology clinical instructor, grabs a filled COVID-19 saliva test tube during a COVID-19 drive-thru testing site at Pima Community College East Campus, 8181 E. Irvington Rd., in Tucson, Ariz. on Dec. 11, 2020. Arizona State University in partnership with the Arizona Department of Health Services is now offering appointment only drive-thru COVID-19 testing, via a saliva test, at three Pima Community College campuses.

Rebecca Sasnett / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

Second-grade students make gingerbread cookies while a warm fire burns on the Smart board at Mesa Verde Elementary School, 1661 W. Sage St. on Dec. 17, 2020.

Rick Wiley / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

Marcos Moreno, a volunteer for 15 years with Miracle en el Barrio, writes the number of children on the front of a mini-van as he welcomes families to the Tucson Rodeo Grounds for the 18th year of the event, on Dec. 18, 2020. As a precaution against the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the annual event used a drive-thru style format to handout toys, gift cards and other items to children and families

Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

Five-year old Antonio Moreno reaches out to Santa Claus, getting as close to him as the COVID-19 protective snow-globe bubble will allow during the Tucson Parks and Recreation’s drive-thru Cookies With Santa at Donna R. Liggins Recreation Center, Tucson, Ariz., December 16, 2020. It was slow at the drive-thru and when there were no others around, a few kids like Antonio got a chance to almost touch the Big Guy.

Kelly Presnell / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

A playground structure closed due to the coronavirus pandemic at Arthur Pack Regional Park north of Tucson on May 8, 2020.

Rick Wiley / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

Kris Green stands with hands over heart as students pass by on her last day as a teacher at Manzanita Elementary School on Oct. 23, 2020. After nearly 40 years, she decided to retire before in-person instruction begins on Oct. 26. Green was a district teacher of the year.

Rick Wiley / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

Elana Bloom: It was very shocking. Everything I had planned for, my whole business was canceled over a two day period. Bloom owns Solstice, a textile business and would make most of her money in the Spring to help with the slower months of the summer. April 14, 2020

Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

Sgt. Michael Moseley receives the Coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine during the administration of the vaccination to members of the public who meet the 1B priority eligibility of at Tucson Medical Center’s Marshal Center, on Jan. 15, 2021.

Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

People are directed into the line at the University of Arizona’s COVID19 drive-thru vaccination facilities on the school’s mall, Tucson, Ariz., February 5, 2021.

Kelly Presnell / Arizona Daily Star

Coronavirus Pandemic in Tucson

Resident Victor Braun laughs with a CVS Pharmacy health care worker after getting his first dose of the Moderna COVID vaccine at Hacienda at the Canyon, Tucson, Ariz., January 27, 2021. The facility’s residents and staff were part of a two day vaccination program in conjunction with CVS Pharmacy and monitored by the in-house personnel from TMCOne clinic.

Kelly Presnell / Arizona Daily Star

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