Month: August 2020

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new guidelines for schools Friday as children across the country return to the classroom. The new guidelines address how schools can work with public health officials if an infected person has been on campus. Rather than shut everything down immediately for a long period of time, the guidelines said one option is an initial short-term class suspension and cancellation of events and after-school activities. That would give public health leaders the time they need to determine how widespread the infections are. If schools are using a pod system, where they keep certain students together, administrators may only need to close certain parts of the building where an infected person had been. If local hea...

The global coronavirus pandemic has now killed more than 795,000 people worldwide, nearly a quarter of those in the U.S. Almost 23 million people worldwide have been diagnosed with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new respiratory virus, according to data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. The actual numbers are believed to be much higher due to testing shortages, unreported cases and suspicions that some national governments are hiding or downplaying the scope of their outbreaks. The United States is the worst-affected country, with more than 5.6 million diagnosed cases and at least 175,409 deaths. Latest headlines: US surpasses 175,000 deaths 32 cases, 1 death linked to Maine wedding Here's how the news is developing toda...

Image copyright Reuters Coronavirus will be present "forever in some form or another", a member of the government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) has said. Sir Mark Walport said people would need to be vaccinated at regular intervals. His comments come after the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said he hoped the pandemic would be over within two years, as the Spanish flu had taken two years to overcome. Sir Mark said denser populations and travel meant the virus spread easily. He also said the world population was now much larger than in 1918. Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Sir Mark said that, in order to control the pandemic, "global v...

Alisha Álvarez, 28, said a final goodbye to her father at his funeral service Friday, still wondering if she could have done more to convince him that he didn't have to go to work if he feared contracting coronavirus. José Roberto Álvarez Mena, her dad, was one of thousands of essential workers who showed up to work as California saw a surge in coronavirus cases after partially reopening its economy earlier this summer. Álvarez Mena was working as the head of maintenance for Mission Foods Corp. in Commerce, California, when he tested positive to COVID-19 on June 28. Alisha's mother and older sister, both of whom lived with José Roberto, also tested positive for the virus during the same time period. While both women recovered, José Roberto's symptoms worsened. On July 4, he was hospital...

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.