Tag Archives: Coronavirus

Exclusive: U.S. Navy destroyer in Caribbean sees significant coronavirus outbreak – officials

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. Navy destroyer is believed to have a significant coronavirus outbreak on board as it carries out a counter-narcotics mission in the Caribbean, U.S. officials told Reuters on Friday, marking the latest challenge for the military in dealing with the virus.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that over a dozen sailors had tested positive for the virus. Given the size of ship, usually only a few hundred sailors, an outbreak like this is likely to cause concern and raise questions about whether it would have to return to the United States.

The cases on the ship appear to be the first onboard a ship currently underway at sea.

The aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt was in the Asia Pacific when it had an outbreak onboard, having to eventually dock in Guam. Nearly 850 out of the roughly 4,800 personnel on the carrier have tested positive on the Roosevelt.

The destroyer Kidd is part of the Trump administration’s deployment of more Navy warships and aircraft to the Caribbean to fight drug cartels. Announcing the deployment earlier this month, the Trump administration said the additional warships and aircraft were also aimed and preventing “corrupt actors” like Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from exploiting the coronavirus pandemic to smuggle more narcotics.

(Reporting by Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Jonathan Oatis)

Two New York cats become first U.S. pets to test positive for COVID-19

By Deena Beasley and Katie Paul

(Reuters) – Two cats in New York have become the first pets in the United States to test positive for the new coronavirus but there is no evidence pets can spread the virus to humans, according to U.S. health authorities.

The cats, from separate areas of New York state, had mild respiratory illness and are expected to make a full recovery. It is believed that they contracted the virus from people in their households or neighborhoods, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“Animals, pets, can get infected. … There’s no evidence that the virus is transmitted from the pet to a human,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said at the daily coronavirus briefing.

There are few known COVID-19 infections of pets globally. According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, one cat in Hong Kong tested positive without displaying symptoms, while a cat in Belgium recovered nine days after falling ill.

Five tigers and three lions at the Bronx Zoo in New York have also tested positive for COVID-19, including one tiger who never developed a cough, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society, the non-profit which runs the zoo.

“Our cats were infected by a staff person who was asymptomatically infected with the virus or before that person developed symptoms,” the WCS said on Wednesday. “All eight cats continue to do well. They are behaving normally, eating well, and their coughing is greatly reduced.”

None of the zoo’s leopards, cheetahs, puma or serval are showing any signs of illness, it added.

New York City is the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the United States, which like much of the world is taking extraordinary measures to prevent the spread, but authorities indicated owners did not need to fear their pets.

“There is no evidence that pets play a role in spreading the virus in the United States,” the CDC said in a statement. “Therefore, there is no justification in taking measures against companion animals that may compromise their welfare. Further studies are needed to understand if and how different animals, including pets, could be affected.”

The agency recommends that owners not let their pets interact with people or other animals outside the household. Cats should be kept indoors and dogs should be walked on a leash, maintaining at least six feet (1.8 meters) from other animals and people, it said.

RARE AND ISOLATED CASES

The CDC said coronavirus infections have been reported in very few animals worldwide, mostly in those that had close contact with a person with COVID-19. It is not recommending routine testing of animals at this juncture.

The AVMA similarly said it was not changing its basic guidance for pet owners and veterinarians, adding that any test of an animal should be performed in coordination with public health officials.

Maine-based animal health company IDEXX Laboratories Inc on Monday rolled out a COVID-19 test for pets, which it said would be available to veterinarians in North America this week and distributed internationally after that.

IDEXX said it has conducted over 5,000 tests in cats, dogs, and horses with respiratory symptoms in 17 countries and has found no positive results, suggesting pets “generally remain uninfected, except in rare and isolated cases.”

The company developed its test specifically for use in animals and its laboratories are not approved for handling human specimens, it said.

Earlier this month a study suggested that cats can become infected with the new coronavirus but dogs appear not to be vulnerable, prompting the World Health Organization to say it will take a closer look at transmission of the virus between humans and pets.

A recent study published on the website of the journal Science found that cats and ferrets can become infected with SARS-CoV-2, the scientific term for the virus that causes the COVID-19 disease in humans.

The study, based on research conducted in China in January and February, found, however, that dogs, chickens, pigs and ducks are not likely to catch the virus.

The United States has the world’s largest number of coronavirus cases at over 830,000, with 47,050 deaths as of Wednesday.

(Reporting by Mrinalika Roy in Bengaluru, Deena Beasley in Los Angeles and Katie Paul in San Francisco; Additonal reporting by Doina Chiacu in Washington; Editing by Maju Samuel, Sandra Maler and Peter Henderson)

Factbox: Latest on the spread of the coronavirus around the world-Thursday

Reported cases of the coronavirus have crossed 2.62 million globally and 183,761 people have died, according to a Reuters tally as of 0200 GMT on Thursday.

DEATHS AND INFECTIONS

* For an interactive graphic tracking the global spread, open https://tmsnrt.rs/3aIRuz7 in an external browser.

* For a U.S.-focused tracker with state-by-state and county map, open https://tmsnrt.rs/2w7hX9T in an external browser.

AMERICAS

* Hundreds of members of the U.S. House of Representatives will gather in Washington on Thursday to pass a $484 billion relief bill, bringing the unprecedented total of funds approved for the crisis to nearly $3 trillion.

* U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday ordered a temporary suspension of the issuance of green cards and permanent residence permits, in a move he said aimed at protecting American workers and jobs.

* Mexico, whose total cases exceeded 10,000, will increase spending on social programs and infrastructure projects by $25.6 billion.

EUROPE

* The northern Italian region of Lombardy began an antibody testing programme on Thursday as it prepared to start opening up its economy following weeks of lockdown.

* Spain’s daily increase in fatalities further steadied at around 2% on Thursday, as the government apologised for confusion over lockdown rules for children.

* French president told mayors that unwinding the lockdown would not be done region by region, with a plan to be unveiled around Tuesday next week.

* The French government wants all retail outlets other than restaurants, bars and cafes to be able to reopen once a nationwide lockdown is lifted on May 11.

* Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Germans to show endurance and discipline to get through the pandemic that is “still at the beginning”, and called for a bigger European Union budget to support economic recovery in the bloc.

* The British government came under sustained pressure over its coronavirus response when members of parliament got their first major opportunity in a month to hold it to account.

* Life is unlikely to return to normal even when the tightest restrictions are lifted, and social distancing measures could stay for the rest of this year and beyond, Scottish first minister said.

* Russia showed tentative signs of a flattening infection curve, but the Kremlin said the situation remained tense and officials moved to tighten lockdown measures in 21 regions.

* Hungary will decide next week on the future of lockdown measures as it prepares for a restart of the economy.

* Greece extended its general lockdown by a week to May 4, saying any relaxation would be staggered over May and June.

ASIA-PACIFIC

* Mainland China reported 10 new cases as of the end of April 22, bringing the total to 82,798. The death toll was unchanged at 4,632.

* South Asia’s infections have crossed 37,000, with more than half in India, complicating the task of governments looking to ease lockdowns.

* Indonesia will temporarily ban domestic air and sea travel starting Friday, barring a few exceptions.

* Spooked by a sharp increase in cases in the navy, Taiwan is debating whether to consider a broad lockdown.

* Nearly 50 crew members on an Italian cruise ship docked for repairs in Japan’s Nagasaki have tested positive, raising concern about the strain on the city’s hospitals.

* All member nations of the WHO should support a proposed independent review into the pandemic, Australia’s prime minister said, further threatening strained ties with China.

MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA

* Iranians have returned to shops, bazaars and parks this week as the country eases restrictions, and the daily increase in the death toll remained below 100 on Thursday.

* African nations that lack ventilators will receive some from a donation of 300 supplied by the Jack Ma Foundation.

* The governors of Nigeria’s 36 states agreed to ban interstate movement for two weeks.

* Botswana’s president and lawmakers were released from two weeks in quarantine after testing negative.

ECONOMIC FALLOUT

* Caution gripped markets on Thursday, with stocks falling before a key Eurogroup meeting to discuss joint stimulus measures, offsetting optimism from a fresh round of U.S. coronavirus aid and a recovery in oil prices.

* European Union leaders will on Thursday take their first step towards joint financing of an economic recovery but will kick any difficult decisions about the details into the long grass.

* A record 26 million Americans likely sought unemployment benefits over the last five weeks, meaning all the jobs created during the longest employment boom in U.S. history were wiped out in about a month.

* Japan offered its bleakest assessment of the economy in over a decade as the pandemic threatens to tip the world’s third-largest economy into a deep recession.

* South Korea’s ruling party and the government agreed to provide cash handouts to every household, not just to families below the top 30 percentile of income as previously announced.

* Britain’s economy is crumbling and government borrowing is soaring to the highest levels in peacetime history, increasing pressure on the government to set out an exit strategy.

* India froze inflation-linked increases in salaries and pensions for more than 11 million federal employees and pensioners to generate nearly $10 billion to help combat the outbreak.

(Compiled by Milla Nissi; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)

What you need to know about the coronavirus right now

Summer cancelled?

Across the continent, from Portugal’s Algarve to the islands of Greece, beaches are deserted. There are no visitors at the Eiffel Tower or the Louvre, Edinburgh’s August festivals have been cancelled and the Netherlands’ flower fields are closed.

The big question facing Europe’s tourism industry, however, is whether it can still salvage summer.

“We have to endure the situation and get some revenue this summer,” said Goncalo Rebelo de Almeida, board member of Portuguese hotel chain Vila Gale. “I hope … that will at least allow us to pay fixed costs. And then we will bet on it returning to normal in 2021.”

In the meantime, calls are growing for economic support to haul hotels, restaurants, tour operators, travel agencies and cruise companies back from collapse.

Workplace wearables

Workers in the port of Antwerp will next month begin testing wristbands developed by a local technology company to reinforce social distancing as the world tries to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tech firm Rombit already supplies wearables resembling a sports watch that can warn workers of workplace dangers – newly installed software will now also give warning signals if workers come for example within 1.5 metres (five feet) of each other.

The developers believe it also could offer contact-tracing if someone becomes infected with the coronavirus. Such tools could be useful in helping companies restart work safely.

The vaccine race

An Oxford University team is launching this week trials in humans of a potential COVID-19 vaccine and say a million doses of it are being manufactured for availability by September – even before trials prove whether the shot is effective.

The experimental product – called “ChAdOx1 nCoV-19” – is one of at least 70 potential COVID-19 candidate shots under development by biotech and research teams around the world. At least five of those are in preliminary testing in people.

Job killer

Thursday’s weekly U.S. jobless claims report will likely show that a record 26 million Americans sought unemployment benefits over the last five weeks.

Put another way, that would mean that all the jobs created during the longest employment boom in U.S. history have been wiped out in about a month by the impact of coronavirus.

Ramadan congregational prayers

As the Muslim holy month of Ramadan starts this week, Pakistani doctors warned the government and clerics that it was ill-advised to allow prayer congregations at mosques.

Pakistan lifted precautionary restrictions on congregational prayers on Saturday, after several clashes between police and worshippers and with clerics rejecting such limitations.

The question now is whether other Muslim nations will also relent and relax bans on congregations in the light of pressure from local religious figures.

Sports calendar thins

Another day, another major sporting event bites the dust. The 2020 St. Andrews Trophy, scheduled to take place in Wales from July 23-24, has been cancelled due to the outbreak, the R&A and the European Golf Association has confirmed.

The tournament, contested between amateur golfers representing Britain & Ireland and Europe, was first staged in 1956 and has been held every two years since.

(Compiled by Mark John and Karishma Singh; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

Coronavirus school shutdowns threaten to deepen U.S. ‘digital divide’

By Joseph Ax

(Reuters) – Liz Peasley, a special education aide in the rural Grand Coulee Dam School District in Washington State, drives 10 miles from her home on the Colville Indian Reservation just to get a workable cellphone signal.

Now, with schools shut down until the fall because of the coronavirus pandemic, Peasley – who doesn’t own a computer or tablet – is confronting the same dilemma millions of others in the United States are facing: How to ensure kids trapped at home receive some version of an education if they can’t get online.

“I’m super overwhelmed,” said Peasley, who has three kids between the ages of 10 and 13. “I’m a single mom – it’s tough for us on a good day.”

Some 14% of school-age children, or 7 million, live in a home without high-speed internet, many in less populated areas that lack service or in low-income households that cannot afford it, a 2018 Department of Commerce study found.

In many cases, households may rely only on a cellphone, or may share a single device among several children, making it challenging to complete schoolwork even in the best of times.

While the digital divide is not a new phenomenon, the coronavirus outbreak has laid bare the technological inequities that bedevil rural and impoverished school districts, including Grand Coulee, where two-thirds of the approximately 720 students – many Native American – are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch.

Now educators worry those disparities will turn achievement gaps into an “achievement chasm,” in the words of Michele Orner, the superintendent of the rural Octorara Area School District in Pennsylvania.

Some districts have reverted to earlier technologies, with staffers delivering paper packets along with meals for needy families. Some schools have stationed buses transmitting mobile wireless signals in neighborhoods; others have encouraged students to park near the school on the weekend and use the wireless network to download necessary materials.

But officials warn some kids will be left behind no matter what. Those concerns have only deepened as the coronavirus-forced hiatus has grown from weeks to months.

Thirty-seven states have either mandated or recommended that public schools serving more than 40 million students remain closed for the rest of the academic year, according to a running tally by the news publication Education Week.

Some states have already warned their schools may not reopen after summer. Washington State Governor Jay Inslee, for instance, encouraged school officials to start preparing in case the shutdown stretches into the fall.

‘SUMMER SLIDE ON STEROIDS’

The U.S. government provides some $4 billion each year to schools and libraries to increase broadband access, but the program does not permit them to use funding to extend offsite access.

“Those students that can’t do online learning are falling further behind,” said John Windhausen, the executive director of the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition. “It’s going to cause a real problem, because the skills that students learn (in class) build off of each other.”

The risks are particularly acute for students with special education needs, including those who have individualized instruction plans that may not be suited for distance learning.

Some districts have hesitated to transition fully online out of fear that doing so would expose them to legal liability for failing to provide equitable education to all students. The Northshore School District in Washington State, one of the first in the country to close in early March, launched an online program immediately but put it on hold for two weeks to address equity concerns.

A lack of training or equipment means many rural or low-income districts are also less able to rely on online instruction.

“The degree of being able to move to online learning at a moment’s notice is totally dependent on the wealth of the district,” said Daniel Domenech, the executive director of the national School Superintendents Association. “At best, maybe 40 or 50% of districts are able to do that.”

In Bronxville, the affluent New York City suburb that saw the state’s first major outbreak in March, the school district has many advantages that poorer systems do not: Engaged parents, a student population that has near-universal internet access, and plenty of laptops to distribute to families in need.

“I’m in a fortunate district,” said Schools Superintendent Roy Montesano.

Many others are not so fortunate.

In Pennsylvania’s Octorara district, where students receive a Chromebook laptop starting in seventh grade, Orner, the superintendent, said she concluded that going back to pencil and paper would shortchange her kids.

Around one-quarter of her students lack high-speed Internet access, so the district recently bought 100 iPhones – Orner secured a $9,500 emergency state grant to cover the cost – for students to use as mobile hotspots.

But she acknowledged that the most vulnerable students are also the likeliest to fall behind even further.

“We talk about the summer slide,” she said, referring to the months between school academic years that sometimes causes students to slip backward. “Imagine the summer slide on steroids.”

As school districts grapple with new challenges, they look for solutions wherever they can. Grand Coulee Dam just started to employ some distance learning this week by setting up Google Classroom for those families able to access it and loaning out some Chromebooks, even as it continues to rely on pencil and paper classwork for students without internet.

Those packets, however, have to be carefully curated to ensure kids in poor households have everything they need.

“You want them to measure something, you better put in a ruler,” said Pam Johnson, a ninth-grade Grand Coulee Dam teacher. “You want them to color something, you better throw in a packet of crayons.”

(Reporting by Joseph Ax in New York; Editing by Scott Malone and Aurora Ellis)

Factbox: Latest on the spread of the coronavirus around the world -Wednesday

(Reuters) – Reported cases of the coronavirus have crossed 2.57 million globally and 178,574 people have died, according to a Reuters tally as of 1400 GMT on Wednesday.

DEATHS AND INFECTIONS

* For an interactive graphic tracking the global spread, open https://tmsnrt.rs/3aIRuz7 in an external browser.

* For a U.S.-focused tracker with state-by-state and county map, open https://tmsnrt.rs/2w7hX9T in an external browser.

AMERICAS

* The U.S. House of Representatives will pass Congress’ latest coronavirus aid bill on Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, paving the way for additional $500 billion in economic relief.

* An old malaria drug touted by President Trump as a “game changer” provided no benefit and potentially higher risk of death for patients at U.S. veterans hospitals, according to an analysis submitted for expert review.

* Ecuador is preparing a plan to reactivate its economy and allow flights home for citizens stranded abroad, the government said following a month of strict quarantine.

* Peru’s hospitals are struggling with a rapid rise in infections, with bodies being kept in hallways, masks repeatedly reused, and protests of medical workers concerned over their safety.

* Mexico registered a jump of more than 700 confirmed cases on Tuesday, to reach a total of 9,501, health ministry officials said.

* Allies of both Venezuela’s president and its opposition leader have begun secret talks as concerns grow about the possible impact of the pandemic, according to sources on both sides.

* Hundreds of Brazilians stranded in Southeast Asia during an emergency lockdown are headed home after the Brazilian embassy in Bangkok chartered a flight for them.

EUROPE

* Germany approved live human testing of a potential vaccine developed by German biotech company BioNTech.

* It may take European Union countries until the summer or longer to agree on how to finance an economic recovery as major disagreements persist, an official said on Wednesday.

* The outbreak has caused as many as 41,000 deaths in the United Kingdom, according to a Financial Times analysis of official data.

* Britain’s prime minister faced a call for an inquiry into his government’s handling of the crisis after failing to fully explain partial death data, limited testing or the lack of equipment for hospitals.

* Spain’s prime minister said he plans to begin phasing out lockdown measures in the second half of May.

* Confirmed infections surpassed 10,000 in Poland on Wednesday, the highest number in post-communist central Europe, as it slowly eases restrictions ahead of a presidential election.

* Ukraine extended strong quarantine measures till May 11.

* The Kremlin called allegations about artificial origin of the new coronavirus groundless and unacceptable.

* The Berlin Marathon will not go ahead in September after Germany banned public gatherings of over 5,000 until Oct. 24.

ASIA-PACIFIC

* Hackers working in support of the Vietnamese government have attempted to break into Chinese state organisations at the centre of Beijing’s effort to contain the outbreak, a U.S. cybersecurity firm said.

* A northeastern city of 10 million people grappling with what is now China’s biggest outbreak further restricted inbound traffic on Wednesday.

* Japan’s effort to distribute protective masks has been marred by complaints about mould, insects, and stains.

* More than 30 crew members on an Italian cruise ship docked in Japan’s Nagasaki prefecture have tested positive.

* India suspended antibody tests because of concerns over reliability, health officials said on Wednesday.

* Hong Kong’s leader said the replacement of several ministers was aimed at reviving the coronavirus-hit economy and was unrelated to recent remarks from mainland China reaffirming Beijing’s authority.

* Australia’s prime minister called for an international investigation into the origins of the coronavirus, but France beating pandemic came before looking for who was at fault.

* The Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics Organising Committee said a member of the organisation has tested positive for the new coronavirus.

MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA

* Sixty-eight people, mostly staff, have come down with the coronavirus at a prison in the Moroccan city of Ouarzazate, prison authorities said, without reporting any deaths.

* A Lebanese university hospital team will test for the coronavirus at a refugee camp on Wednesday after a resident was found to be infected, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency said.

* Air Mauritius has entered voluntary administration after the disruptions made it impossible to meet its financial obligations for the foreseeable future, its board said.

* Zambia’s Chamber of Mines has urged the government to urgently engage with the sector and agree relief measures.

ECONOMIC FALLOUT

* Oil took markets on another rollercoaster ride on Wednesday as Brent somehow managed to reverse an early 12% crash to 1999 lows and give battered petrocurrencies and stock markets something to cheer, with coronavirus lockdowns slashing demand. [MKTS/GLOB}

* As the world marked the 50th anniversary of Earth Day on Wednesday, calls were growing for “green recovery” packages to spur a shift to a low-carbon future.

* A possible drop in emissions due to the pandemic will not be enough to stop climate change, the World Meteorological Organization said, urging governments to integrate climate action into recovery plans.

* The economies of Latin America and the Caribbean will shrink by a record 5.3% in 2020, a United Nations agency said.

* The collapse in China’s economic activity has fanned calls for the government to hasten the rollout of fiscal stimulus, as ballooning unemployment threatens social stability.

* Turkey’s central bank slashed its key interest rate by 100 basis points to 8.75% on Wednesday, more than expected.

(Compiled by Sarah Morland, Aditya Soni, Devika Syamnath, Ramakrishnan M and Uttaresh.V; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta, Sriraj Kalluvila and Tomasz Janowski)

U.S. deaths top 46,000 after near-record increase previous day: Reuters tally

By Lisa Shumaker

(Reuters) – U.S. coronavirus deaths topped 46,000 on Wednesday after rising by a near-record single-day number on Tuesday, according to a Reuters tally.

A University of Washington study, often cited by the White House, projected a total of nearly 66,000 U.S. coronavirus deaths by Aug. 4, an upward revision from its most recent previous estimate of 60,000 deaths. At current rates, U.S. deaths could reach 50,000 later this week.

The first U.S. coronavirus death happened weeks earlier than previously believed, according to California county health officials who conducted two autopsies. The first U.S. death was on Feb. 6, instead of Feb. 29, they reported.

In the weeks since, the U.S. death toll has soared to the highest in the world. U.S. deaths increased by 2,792 on Tuesday alone, just shy of a peak of 2,806 deaths in a single day on April 15.

Deaths in New York state, the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak, continued to decline with 474 new deaths on Wednesday. However, some nearby states such as Pennsylvania and New Jersey reported record single-day deaths tolls on Tuesday.

Health officials have said that deaths are a lagging indicator of the outbreak, coming weeks after patients fall sick, and do not mean stay-at-home restrictions are failing to slow the spread of the virus.

The United States has by far the world’s largest number of confirmed coronavirus cases at over 815,000, almost four times as many as Spain, the country with the second-highest number.

GRAPHIC: Tracking the novel coronavirus in the U.S.

U.S. cases rose by 25,000 to over 810,000 on Tuesday, one of the smallest increases seen so far in April.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday applauded steps taken by a handful of Republican-led U.S. states, including Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee, to start reopening their economies despite warnings of a potential fresh surge of coronavirus infections.

(Writing by Lisa Shumaker; Editing by Howard Goller)

U.S. House to pass nearly $500 billion more in coronavirus aid on Thursday

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. House of Representatives will pass Congress’ latest coronavirus aid bill on Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, paving the way for nearly $500 billion more in economic relief amid the pandemic.

Pelosi, in an interview on MSNBC on Wednesday, said House lawmakers were ready to then move on to a fifth effort to continue tackling issues swelling from the outbreak that has crushed the nation’s economy and battered its healthcare system.

“We’ll pass it tomorrow in the House,” the California Democrat said.

The bipartisan $484-billion package, which passed the Republican-led U.S. Senate on Tuesday, includes an additional $321 billion for a previously set up small business lending program that quickly saw its funds exhausted.

It also includes $60 billion for a separate emergency disaster loan program – also for small businesses – and $75 billion for hospitals and $25 billion for national coronavirus testing.

Pelosi said she hopes the newly provided funds will be able to flow to strapped employers and others as soon as possible after U.S. President Trump, who has backed the bill, signs it into law.

“This is absolutely urgent,” she told MSNBC.

She also said a subsequent fifth aid package should also include money to protect U.S. elections and the U.S. Postal Service.

(Reporting by Susan Heavey; additional reporting by Lisa Lambert; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Nick Zieminski)

Alarmed as COVID patients’ blood thickened, New York doctors try new treatments

By Jonathan Allen

NEW YORK (Reuters) – As the novel coronavirus spread through New York City in late March, doctors at Mount Sinai Hospital noticed something strange happening to patients’ blood.

Signs of blood thickening and clotting were being detected in different organs by doctors from different specialties. This would turn out to be one of the alarming ways the virus ravages the body, as doctors there and elsewhere were starting to realize.

At Mount Sinai, nephrologists noticed kidney dialysis catheters getting plugged with clots. Pulmonologists monitoring COVID-19 patients on mechanical ventilators could see portions of lungs were oddly bloodless. Neurosurgeons confronted a surge in their usual caseload of strokes due to blood clots, the age of victims skewing younger, with at least half testing positive for the virus.

“It’s very striking how much this disease causes clots to form,” Dr. J Mocco, a Mount Sinai neurosurgeon, said in an interview, describing how some doctors think COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, is more than a lung disease. In some cases, Mocco said, a stroke was a young patient’s first symptom of COVID-19.

As colleagues from various specialties pooled their observations, they developed a new treatment protocol. Patients now receive high doses of a blood-thinning drug even before any evidence of clotting appears.

“Maybe, just maybe, if you prevent the clotting, you can make the disease less severe,” said Dr. David Reich, the hospital president. The new protocol will not be used on certain high-risk patients because blood thinners can lead to bleeding in the brain and other organs.

“FUNNY YOU MENTIONED THAT”

In the three weeks beginning mid-March, Mocco saw 32 stroke patients with large blood blockages in the brain, double the usual number for that period.

Five were unusually young, under age 49, with no obvious risk factors for strokes, “which is crazy,” he said. “Very, very atypical.” The youngest was only 31.

At least half of the 32 patients would test positive for COVID-19, Mocco said.

Meanwhile, Dr. Hooman Poor, a Mount Sinai lung specialist, found himself working a late shift with 14 patients on ventilators. The ventilator readings were not what he expected.

The lungs did not seem stiff, as is common in pneumonia. Instead, it seemed blood was not circulating freely through the lungs to be aerated with each breath.

Poor ran into a kidney doctor that night, who remarked that dialysis catheters were often getting blocked with clots.

“And I said, ‘It’s funny that you mentioned that because I feel like all these patients have blood clots in their lungs,'” Poor recalled.

Reich, the hospital president, told Poor about the surge in strokes seen by Mocco and said the two doctors should team up, setting off days of discussions and meetings with the hospital’s department heads.

At 2:46 a.m. on Easter Sunday, Poor sent Mocco his first draft of what would become the new treatment protocol.

DOCTORS SHARE FINDINGS

As their wards began to overflow with COVID-19 patients, the Mount Sinai doctors read papers describing similar findings from doctors in China’s Hubei province and other hard-hit areas, and discussed them with their peers in phone calls and webinars.

Mocco called neurosurgeons he knows elsewhere in the country. At Philadelphia’s Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Dr. Pascal Jabbour had begun to see a similar surge in strokes among people with COVID-19. The way his patients’ blood congealed reminded him of congenital conditions such as lupus, or certain cancers.

“I’ve never seen any other viruses causing that,” Jabbour said.

In Boston, the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center began a clinical trial earlier this month to see if tPA, an anti-clotting drug, could help severely sick COVID-19 patients.

Clotting can develop in anyone who gets very sick and spends long periods of time immobile on a ventilator, but doctors say the problem seemed to show up sooner in COVID-19 patients as a more direct consequence of the virus.

At Mount Sinai, patients in intensive care often receive the blood-thinning agent heparin in weaker prophylactic doses. Under the new protocol, higher doses of heparin normally used to dissolve clots will be given to patients before any clots are detected.

The treatment joins a growing toolbox at the hospital, where some patients are receiving the antibody-rich plasma of recovered COVID-19 patients or experimental antiviral drugs.

The American Society of Hematology, which has also noted the clotting, says in its guidance to physicians that the benefits of the blood-thinning therapy for COVID-19 patients not already showing signs of clotting are “currently unknown.”

“I certainly wouldn’t expect harps to play and angels to sing and people to just rip out their intravenous lines and waltz out of the hospital,” said Reich. “It’s likely going to be something where it just moderates the extent of the disease.”

(Reporting by Jonathan Allen in New York; Editing by Nancy Lapid, Ross Colvin and Aurora Ellis)

Georgia tests boundaries of life post-pandemic with ‘risky’ reopening

By Howard Schneider and Andy Sullivan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A handful of mostly southern U.S. states will begin loosening economic restrictions this week in the midst of a still virulent pandemic, providing a live-fire test of whether America’s communities can start to reopen without triggering a surge that may force them to close again.

The Republican governors of Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee and Ohio all announced on Monday they would begin peeling back the curbs on commerce and social activity aimed at stopping the coronavirus outbreak over the next two weeks. Colorado’s Democratic governor said on Tuesday he would open retail stores on May 1.

Georgia has been hardest-hit of these states, with 19,000 cases and nearly 800 deaths, including a dense cluster in the state’s southwest. Amid a national debate over how to fight the virus while mitigating the deep economic toll, these moves are the first to test the borders of resuming “normal” life.

None of the states have met basic White House guidelines unveiled last week of two weeks of declining cases before a state should reopen. Most are weeks away from the timing suggested in modeling by the influential Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), based on the virus’s spread and social distancing.

With farmers, small business owners, and larger industries teetering on the edge, “I see the terrible impact on public health as well as the pocketbook,” Georgia Governor Brian Kemp said.

Stacey Abrams, Kemp’s Democratic rival in a closely fought gubernatorial race in 2018, warned of the dangers faced by lower-wage workers called back into businesses that may not follow the rules, serving customers who may not abide by them.

Around the country, the pandemic has taken a greater toll on poorer Americans and minorities. As of Monday, 412 of Georgia’s 774 COVID-19 fatalities were black, or more than 53% compared to the 31% black share of the state’s population.

“We’re not ready to return to normal,” Abrams told CBS’s “This Morning” on Tuesday. “We have people who are the most vulnerable and the least resilient being put on the front lines, contracting a disease that they cannot get treatment for.”

TATTOO PARLORS AND NAIL SALONS

Republican President Donald Trump, who has been eager to end a lockdown that has crushed the U.S. economy in an election year, has called for Democratic governors in big states to “liberate” their citizens from the stay-at-home orders.

In Georgia, where the growth in cases and deaths from the COVID-19 disease caused by the virus has slowed in recent days, Kemp said he would allow a broad swath of businesses from barbershops to tattoo parlors to reopen on Friday under enhanced rules for hygiene, distancing among employees, and use of masks.

The industries employ thousands in Georgia, but are not top contributors to the state’s overall GDP, which is led https://apps.bea.gov/regional/bearfacts/action.cfm by finance and insurance, followed by professional and business services. Retail stores and fast food chains are top employers.

Graphic: Georgia moves to reopen – https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/editorcharts/xlbpgadypqd/eikon.png

(See a graphic of Georgia’s economy https://reut.rs/3eBy40W.)

On Monday, movie theaters, restaurants and private clubs in the state will be allowed to open, with some restrictions. Bars, music clubs and amusement parks will remain closed for now.

Some questioned the wisdom of opening up service industries that operated with such high levels of human contact.

“Gyms, nail salons, bowling alleys, hair salons, tattoo parlors — it feels like they collected, you know, a list of the businesses that were most risky and decided to open those first,” Scott Gottlieb, former Food and Drug Administration commissioner, told CNBC on Tuesday.

“Unlike other businesses, these entities have been unable to manage inventory, deal with payroll, and take care of administrative items while we shelter in place,” Kemp said on Monday.

Georgia was one of the best-prepared U.S. states to weather an economic downturn before the COVID-19 crisis hit, Moody’s Analytics noted in an April report, with a “rainy day” balance of 10.9% of 2019 revenues on hand. Only six other states had more.

NEXT STEPS

With stepped-up testing and monitoring, “we will get Georgians back to work safely,” Kemp said.

Leaders of the other states offered similar rationales, arguing that caseloads had eased, testing and monitoring had expanded, and hospital capacity was now adequate to take what Kemp called a “small step forward” in resuming normal life.

Some health experts have suggested activity should remain restricted until near universal testing is available.

Death rates in Georgia, Colorado and Ohio are close to the national average, but their testing rates are among the lowest in the United States, according to a Reuters analysis.

Just 83,000 tests have been conducted so far on Georgia’s more than 10 million residents.

Graphic: Flying blind – https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/editorcharts/jznpnrgkplm/eikon.png

(See a graphic of state testing rates https://reut.rs/34Ui1Xv.)

“We’ve got to get more testing done before we make any public health decisions,” said Dr. Boris Lushniak, dean of the University of Maryland School of Public Health.

Opening is a gamble in a situation where much is still unknown about the virus’ presence in people who show no symptoms, incubation periods within the body, and transmissibility, health experts say.

Economists and epidemiologists who have studied past pandemics warn https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-reopen-analysi/the-u-s-weighs-the-grim-math-of-death-vs-the-economy-idUSKBN21H1B4 that reopening too quickly could both cause unnecessary deaths and cause worse damage to the economy over the long run.

Unknown as well is the public’s tolerance for potential exposure, critical in determining whether reopening at this point provides true economic relief or simply a pathway for the virus to surge – whether confidence, in other words, rises before the infection rate.

Guidelines issued by the IHME at the University of Washington as of Monday recommended Georgia keep restrictions in place until June 15, South Carolina until June 1, Tennessee and Colorado until May 25, and Ohio until May 18.

(Reporting by Howard Schneider and Andy Sullivan in Washington; Additional reporting by Heather Timmons in Washington and Ann Saphir in Berkeley, Calif.; Editing by Heather Timmons and Sonya Hepinstall)