Who investigating reports of recovered covid 19 patients testing positive again

Moscow — Russian President Vladimir Putin told his country's employers on Wednesday that they would have to shut down again for a week from the end of October — the most dramatic step by his government in months aimed at stemming the country's surging coronavirus epidemic. During a meeting with senior officials, Putin backed a proposal to mandate "non-working" days from October 30 until November 7. Workers will be paid during the shutdown, Putin said, as he ordered an expansion of COVID-19 testing to try and more efficiently identify virus cases. "Our main task now is to protect the lives of citizens and, as far as possible, minimize the spread of coronavirus infection," Putin said. He announced the new measure shortly after Russia announced yet another record number of daily coronavirus deaths , and a day after the Kremlin accepted, for the first time, a "share of responsibility" for the country's lackluster vaccination campaign. Only about 32% of Russia's total …

[Read more...] about Russia orders new business shut-down amid record daily COVID-19 deaths

Charities have said thousands of people with compromised immune systems across the UK are being "shamefully let down" amid confusion over the rollout of the third dose of the COVID vaccine. People classed as extremely vulnerable from coronavirus due to serious health conditions have been contacting charities to report they are struggling to book "lifesaving" jab appointments - raising fears it might lead to "entirely avoidable deaths". They have highlighted problems such as not receiving an invitation from the NHS for their third jab - and reporting fewer vaccine centres being made available compared to earlier rollout programmes. Blood Cancer UK said the "failure" might lead to "entirely avoidable deaths" and called for the NHS to "urgently announce that immunocompromised people can go direct to mass vaccination centres" for their jab. Latest COVID news as UK cases and deaths rise Advertisement Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible …

[Read more...] about COVID-19: Vulnerable patients ‘shamefully let down’ by ‘failure’ of third jab rollout, say charities

Oct 20 (Reuters) - New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Wednesday he was expanding the city's vaccine mandate to include all public employees, requiring them to show proof of inoculation against COVID-19 or be placed on unpaid leave. As a sweetener, city employees will receive a $500 bonus for receiving their first shot at a city-run vaccination site by 5 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 29, the deadline for showing proof of vaccination to a supervisor, de Blasio said in a statement. "There is no greater privilege than serving the people of New York City, and that privilege comes with a responsibility to keep yourself and your community safe," he said. The policy in the most populous U.S. city comes as numerous other municipalities, school districts and other governments across the nation grapple with masking and vaccination requirements. The number of new COVID-19 cases has steadily declined since a surge caused by the Delta variant of the virus during the summer. Seventy-one percent of …

[Read more...] about New York City to require COVID-19 vaccinations for all public employees

Hundreds of staff at Delta Air Lines have tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Ten workers have died after contracting the virus, the company confirmed. According to a transcript of the company's latest shareholders meeting held on a phone conference June 18, Delta's Chief Executive Officer Ed Bastian said: "We have had approximately 500 employees that have tested positive for COVID-19. The vast majority have recovered, thankfully. Unfortunately, we have lost 10 employees to the disease." Speaking to Newsweek, a spokesperson for Delta noted the latest tally of infected employees is "inclusive of all positive cases reported to us since March out of our 90,000 employees worldwide. "Since initial reporting in March, Delta has seen a significant reduction in positive employee COVID-19 tests and is currently tracking at a rate five times lower than the national average." Bastian said: "We have recently announced that we are going to be testing all of our employees. In fact, …

[Read more...] about 500 Delta airline staff test positive for coronavirus, 10 dead

Boris Johnson's chief adviser Dominic Cummings, who helped run the Vote Leave Brexit campaign, did commit "a minor breach of lockdown rules", according to Durham Police. The prime minister has been under increasing pressure to dismiss his top political aide after it was discovered he made a 264-mile trip from his London property to his parent's home in Durham , despite suspecting that both he and his wife had COVID-19 symptoms. Although ministers insisted Cumming stayed put when he arrived at his parent's property, Cummings has admitted he made a 60-mile round trip to a beauty spot to "test his eyesight" before traveling back to London. He was spotted in Barnard Castle, a market town in County Durham in the northeast of England, on April 12. On March 23, Johnson had instructed the rest of the country to "stay at home" and that they must not meet family or friends that they do not live with. Those with symptoms were told to self-isolate for seven days, while members of their …

[Read more...] about Brexit mastermind Cummings did breach COVID-19 guidelines, police says

Lina Hidalgo, the Democratic Harris County Judge who was sued in April for her court order making face masks mandatory county-wide, is now self-isolating after a staff member in her office tested positive for COVID-19. While Hidalgo hasn't reportedly contracted coronavirus, she has nonetheless decided to self-quarantine for 14 days until July 6. "The reality of it is, there are thousands of residents across Harris County that are increasingly finding themselves in the same position I am in today," Hidalgo said in a statement. On Friday, Hildalgo upgraded Harris County's COVID-19 threat level to Level 1 just as Republican state Governor Greg Abbott re-ordered the closure of the state's bars amid rising coronavirus case numbers. Texas is currently experiencing a dramatic spike in COVID-19 cases with Harris County reporting more cases and deaths than any other Texas county. As of June 29, Harris County has had a total of 29,276 confirmed cases and 371 related deaths. On April …

[Read more...] about Texas county judge who ordered mandatory masks now quarantined for COVID-19

Brazil's president should face homicide charges over errors that led to an estimated 95,000 COVID-19 deaths, a draft of a major inquiry report has found. With more than 600,000 deaths, only the US has lost more people to coronavirus than Brazil and the president has been widely criticised for openly objecting to lockdowns, regularly refusing to wear a mask in public and stating he has not been vaccinated. And now, the senator leading a congressional probe into his handling of the pandemic has recommended Mr Bolsonaro be charged with homicide. A 1,200-page document, prepared over six months by opposition senator Renan Calheiros for a Senate commission that conducted the probe, alleges that Mr Bolsonaro failed to take the opportunity to acquire vaccines , when they were presented, leading to the deaths of thousands. It says he was guided "by an unfounded belief in the theory of herd immunity by natural infection" and is "principally responsible for the …

[Read more...] about Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro should face homicide charges over 95,000 COVID-19 deaths, draft report finds

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed an executive order Monday extending the state of emergency until the last weekend in August because of an increase in positive coronavirus cases. Data from the Tennessee Department of Health indicated 1,410 new cases on Friday, a single-day record for the state. An "unplanned shutdown of the state surveillance system" kept the state from releasing coronavirus information on Sunday. Monday's data, which includes numbers from Monday and Sunday indicate 2,125 new cases. In total, Tennessee has reported 42,297 cases of the virus. Lee's executive order was designed to "facilitate the treatment and containment of COVID-19 through regulatory flexibility, promoting social distancing and avoidance of large gatherings, and protecting vulnerable populations," according to a news release from Lee's office. Although no mandates were imposed on Tennesseans, Lee's order urges residents to stay home whenever feasible, wear facial coverings when close to other …

[Read more...] about Tennessee extends state of emergency after COVID-19 cases increase

As cases of the novel coronavirus in Texas climb past 156,700, doctors in San Antonio fear hospital beds are running out, with nearly two dozen COVID-19 patients reportedly waiting in emergency rooms (ER) for beds to be available. Doctors of San Antonio's Methodist Healthcare System, one of the area's largest health systems with nine hospitals and over 2,100 beds, are "very worried," noted the director of critical care at Methodist Healthcare System, Dr. Melo, News Channel 4 San Antonio reports. "We're in a crisis," Melo said at a press conference Monday held by doctors from the health system. Despite official reports presented at the press conference indicating that, as of Sunday, 27 percent of the 4,713 staffed hospital beds in Bexar County (whose county seat is San Antonio) were available, Melo claimed the situation was worse. He noted there were 21 COVID-19 patients waiting in ER for beds either in or out of intensive care, San Antonio's KSAT reported Monday. "This …

[Read more...] about Coronavirus patients wait in ER as San Antonio doctors warn of bed “crisis”

Pulitzer Center Logo This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center. One thing that has changed for Giulianio Martini since his father owned their historic pharmacy in northern Italy are the candies. The barley lollipops, once handmade by Martini's father and dispensed to the children who came through the storefront with their parents, are now pre-packaged, pre-purchased. The chamomile flavor, however, remains unchanged. As a two-term, 10 year mayor of Vò, he's seen the ongoing health crises from both medical and municipal sides. "The pharmacy has become a municipality desk for people who have problems, he said on a recent Wednesday. "If they need something, they write what they need and I put the bits of paper in my pockets ... then when I come up to the town hall we deal with them." Martini and his wife operate two pharmacies in Vò. The family's client was the first in Europe to succumb to the coronavirus. The death came amid a campaign of COVID-19 testing that in the …

[Read more...] about An Italian pharmacist-mayor’s lesson from testing his town to save a region