COVID-19 Archives - APADANA MEDIA

Iran to Emerge as Major COVID Vaccine Producer by Summer’s End: Minister

Apadana Central — Tue, 15 Jun 2021 12:47:54 +0000

Iran’s minister of health said the country will become one of the world’s biggest producers of the coronavirus vaccine by the end of summer.

In comments after opening a new hospital in the central province of Isfahan on Tuesday, Saeed Namaki said Iran will be known as a Major COVID Vaccine Producer in the world by the end of summer.

He also noted that the distribution of the first Iranian vaccine for the coronavirus, the emergency use of which has just been authorized, would begin across the country today.

The minister further deplored foreign vaccine sellers for the failure to honor their commitments, saying Iran’s efforts have resolved a series of problems as the import of the COVID vaccine to Iran has resumed.

In comments on Monday, Namaki said the emergency-use authorization has been granted for COVIran Barekat, the homegrown vaccine for the coronavirus named after the pharmaceutical group that has developed it.

The minister also noted that the emergency use of another vaccine developed jointly by Cuba and the Pasteur Institute of Iran will be authorized next week.

The COVIran vaccine has gone into three stages of clinical trials, the last of which involved 20,000 people in the cities of Tehran, Bushehr, Shiraz, Karaj, Mashhad and Isfahan.

Iran has already granted emergency use authorization to Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine, Covaxin made by India’s Bharat Biotech, Oxford/AstraZeneca developed by Russia’s R-Pharm Group, and the AstraZeneca-SKBio made in South Korea.

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Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, Asians around the world appear to be experiencing more discrimination, and many say it’s happening at work.

Apadana Central — Mon, 07 Jun 2021 03:07:33 +0000

Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, Asians around the world appear to be experiencing more discrimination, and many say it’s happening at work.

Covid-19 pandemic | Apadana Media

Asians around the world speak out on workplace discrimination

By Michelle Toh, Moss Cohen and Lauren Cook, CNN Business

Published June 7, 2021

It’s not just in the streets, and it’s not just in the United States.

In Australia, 66.4% of Asian Australian respondents to a survey last October reported experiencing workplace discrimination, which represented an increase of almost 15% in six months. The pandemic worsened dramatically in the country during that time, with coronavirus cases surging from 4,862 to 27,109 between last April and October, according to a tracker from Johns Hopkins University.

Asian Australians also suffered a disproportionate drop in working hours last spring, which “was more than twice the drop” for the rest of the population, according to researchers at the Australian National University, which conducted the study. They noted that there was “a range of possible explanations” for the disparity, including “that discrimination against Asian Australians in the workplace may have had an effect.”

In the United Kingdom, the employment rate among Chinese people dropped 4.6% from the first quarter of 2020 to the second — nearly three times more than declines experienced by other ethnic groups, according to government data.

“It is likely that the high representation of Chinese and East Asian people in hard-hit sectors like hospitality is part of it, but direct discrimination by employers may play a role too,” Frances O’Grady, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, a British coalition of labor unions, told CNN Business.

The coronavirus outbreak was first detected in China last year, leading some politicians to blame the country for the crisis. Victims and community groups say that has emboldened more people to show hostility to those perceived to be of Asian — and especially Chinese — descent.

CNN Business spoke with 38 workers in 11 countries who reported experiencing or witnessing bias in a range of ways since the start of the pandemic, from explicit harassment to subtle microaggressions.

They are of various Asian ethnicities, including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese and Filipino.

Here are 11 of their stories.

CNN Business spoke to dozens of people around the world.

Read, watch or listen to some of their experiences of racial discrimination in the workplace.

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The stigma of variant names

Apadana Central — Tue, 01 Jun 2021 12:07:41 +0000

A version of this story appeared in the June 1 edition of CNN’s Coronavirus: Fact vs. Fiction newsletter

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For example, instead of the “UK variant” (B.1.1.7), the WHO will now say “Alpha;” the “South African variant” (B.1.351) is now “Beta;” and the P.1 variant, first detected in Brazil, has been labeled “Gamma,” CNN’s Jacqueline Howard reports.

Throughout history, infectious diseases have been named after geographic locations where they were thought to have originated: West Nile virus, Zika and Ebola, to mention a few. But those associations can be damaging for those places, its people and, in some cases, be inaccurate. There is no universal consensus on where Spanish flu began, for example.

Last March, then-President Donald Trump referred to Covid-19 as “the Chinese virus.” Many Asian Americans subsequently said they were blamed for bringing the coronavirus to the United States. In May, India’s government expressed displeasure with media outlets using the term “Indian variant,” for the B.1.617.2 Covid-19 strain first identified in the country (or “Delta,” as it will be called under the new system).

The WHO says the Greek alphabet letters “will be easier and more practical to [be] discussed by non-scientific audiences.” But there are some concerns that the system has arrived too late. The new names could make describing the variants even more complicated as there will now be three potential names: a scientific name, references based on where a strain was first identified and WHO’s Greek alphabet labeling.

“There’s definitely issues with stigmatization where the variants are being described and then labeling them based on that country. We know that there’s already backlash in India, regarding the Indian variant and people mentioning it that way,” Dr. Amesh Adalja, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told CNN. “So, I understand why it’s happening. I think it’s just a lot for people to think about this far down the line.”

YOU ASKED. WE ANSWERED.

Q: How can we prevent future outbreaks of other diseases?

A: One step would be an international treaty on pandemic preparedness, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during the closing of the 74th World Health Assembly on Monday.

Tedros said the “defining characteristic of the pandemic is the lack of sharing: of data, information, pathogens, technologies and resources. These are the challenges … we’ve been facing since the pandemic started, and even before.”

A treaty would change that, “fostering improved sharing, trust and accountability, and provide the solid foundation on which to build other mechanisms for global health security,” Tedros said.

But it could take some time for such an agreement to be reached. The first international public health treaty negotiated by the WHO, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, was negotiated for four years before it came into force in 2005.

Send your questions here. Are you a health care worker fighting Covid-19? Message us on WhatsApp about the challenges you’re facing: +1 347-322-0415.

WHAT’S IMPORTANT TODAY

Peru more than doubles its official Covid-19 death toll

Peru has more than doubled its official death toll from the Covid-19 pandemic following a government review of the figures, leaving the country with the highest coronavirus-related death rate per capita in the world.

Its Prime Minister Violeta Bermudez told a press conference that the figure was changed from 69,342 on Sunday to 180,764 on Monday following advice from a panel of Peruvian and international experts, and it covers coronavirus-related deaths between March 1, 2020 to May 21, 2021. “It [is] our duty to make the updated information public, not only as part of our commitment to transparency, but also to comply with our obligations as a state,” Bermudez added.

China partially seals off city after new Covid-19 cluster

Chinese authorities have locked down two areas in China’s Guangzhou city, northwest of Hong Kong, after 21 locally-transmitted Covid-19 cases and five asymptomatic infections were reported in the district since May 21.

All public venues within the two areas in Liwan district are closed, and people are prohibited from entering and exiting. Daily necessities are delivered to residents by local community workers, according to a statement by the district government. The first case in this cluster was a 75-year-old woman who tested positive for the variant first identified in India. The woman did not have a travel history but was believed to be connected to an imported case, the government said.

Opinion: Why I’m grateful I lost my parents before India’s horrific Covid-19 surge

CNN’s Pallabi Munsi lost both of her parents to Covid-19 last year in the span of 10 days. Despite the grief, she explains why she is grateful that they did not live to witness this year’s second wave in India — where systemic failures in central and state governments exacerbated a steep shortage of resources in the country’s health infrastructure.

The disaster has also threatened India’s economy, which was turning a corner earlier this year as the country started to accelerate out of the recession it suffered in 2020.

ON OUR RADAR

Vaccinated people are taking Krispy Kreme up on its free doughnuts offer. The chain said it has given away over 1.5 million doughnuts since it announced the deal in March.
The United Kingdom could be seeing the early signs of a third wave and should delay lifting all coronavirus restrictions as planned on June 21, a scientific adviser to the government said.
Top bankers can now bypass Hong Kong’s strict quarantine rules as long as they are fully vaccinated. They would still be required to book rooms at quarantine hotels, or stay in another approved location, but would be allowed to move about the city for scheduled business meetings.
Japan is considering requiring a negative Covid-19 test or vaccination certificate for any spectator wishing to enter an Olympic venue, Japanese media reported Monday, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter.
Severe acute childhood malnutrition in Haiti is expected to more than double this year as the country deals with rising violence, the pandemic and a lack of access to essential services, according to UNICEF.

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The Covid-19 Death Toll Is Even Worse Than It Looks

admin — Mon, 18 Jan 2021 12:59:12 +0000

US Press Agency in Battle Creek | Apadana Media

World-wide deaths are running far beyond what would have been expected without the pandemic

The recorded death count from the Covid-19 pandemic as of Thursday is nearing 2 million. The true extent is far worse.

More than 2.8 million people have lost their lives due to the pandemic, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of data from 59 countries and jurisdictions. This tally offers the most comprehensive view yet of the pandemic’s global impact. Deaths in these places last year surged more than 12% above average levels.

Less than two-thirds of that surge has been attributed directly to Covid-19. Public-health experts believe that many, if not most, of the additional deaths were directly linked to the disease, particularly early in the pandemic when testing was sparse. Some of those excess deaths came from indirect fallout, from health-care disruptions, people avoiding the hospital and other issues.

To better understand the pandemic’s global toll, the Journal compiled the most recent available data on deaths from all causes from countries with available records. These countries together account for roughly one-quarter of the world’s population but about three-quarters of all reported deaths from Covid-19 through late last year.

The tally found more than 821,000 additional deaths that aren’t accounted for in governments’ official Covid-19 death counts.

US Press Agency in Battle Creek | Apadana Media

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Wave of new COVID-19 cases crashes across U.S. and Europe as winter looms

Marjaneh Rouhani — Mon, 26 Oct 2020 23:15:07 +0000

October 26, 2020

By James Mackenzie and Lisa Shumaker

MILAN/CHICAGO (Reuters) – US News: The United States, Russia, France and many other countries are setting records for corona virus infections as a tidal wave of cases washes over parts of the Northern Hemisphere, forcing some countries to impose new curbs.

The gloom weighed on global financial markets on Monday as surging infections clouded the economic outlook. [MKTS/GLOB]

U.S. stocks had their worst day in four weeks over the double whammy of record corona virus cases and political deadlock in negotiations to provide more economic aid. [.N]

Word that a vaccine being developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca Plc produced immune responses in both elderly and young people offered some positive news as autumn turns to winter in northern countries and more people socialise indoors.

But British Health Secretary Matt Hancock cautioned that the vaccine would not be widely available until next year and said, “We’re not there yet”.

Any vaccine faces both scientific and public relations hurdles. Surveys have shown only about half of Americans would get a COVID-19 vaccination due to concerns about safety, effectiveness and the approval process.

In the United States, the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients is at a two-month high, straining health care systems in some states.

U.S. President Donald Trump, facing a tough re-election battle on Nov. 3, lashed out again at reports that the corona virus is surging.

He repeated his unfounded claim that COVID-19 cases are rising because there is more testing, an assertion not supported by data and one that has been rejected by health experts.

“Cases up because we TEST, TEST, TEST. A Fake News Media Conspiracy. Many young people who heal very fast. 99.9%. Corrupt Media conspiracy at all time high,” Trump said in a Twitter post.

The number of new COVID-19 cases in the United States last week rose 24% while the number of tests performed rose 5.5%, according to a Reuters analysis. (Graphic: https://tmsnrt.rs/2WTOZDR)

‘LOCKDOWN LIGHT’

In Europe the picture was unrelentingly grim as a string of countries reported record increases, led by France, which posted more than 50,000 daily cases for the first time on Sunday, while the continent passed the threshold of 250,000 deaths. (Graphic: https://tmsnrt.rs/34pvUyi)

France may even be experiencing 100,000 new infections a day, professor Jean-François Delfraissy, who heads a council that advises the government, told RTL radio.

Governments have been desperate to avoid the lockdowns which curbed the disease earlier in the year at the cost of shutting down their entire economies. But the steady rise in new cases has forced many in Europe to tighten curbs.

“We are facing very, very difficult months ahead,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel told a meeting of leaders from her Christian Democrat party, according to daily Bild.

She plans “lockdown light” that will focus on closing bars, restaurants and public events, the newspaper said.

The Spanish government faced a backlash over its plans to put one of Europe’s worst COVID-19 hot spots under a six-month state of emergency. Opposition parties said six months was too long, epidemiologists said this may be too little too late and some citizens balked at nightly curfews.

Russia’s daily tally of new COVID-19 infections surged to a record high of 17,347 on Monday as the Kremlin warned the pandemic was beginning to take a greater toll outside Moscow.

Russia in August became the first country to grant regulatory approval for a vaccine against COVID-19 after less than two months of human testing, raising eyebrows among sceptical scientists in the West. Regulators approved a second vaccine earlier this month.

With 1.5 million infections, the country of around 145 million people has recorded the world’s fourth largest COVID-19 case load – after the United States, India and Brazil.

Italy, the country worst hit in the early stages of the crisis in March, imposed new restrictions, ordering restaurants and bars to close from 6 p.m., shutting cinemas and gyms and imposing local curfews in several regions.

More than 43 million people are reported to have been infected by the coronavirus globally and 1.15 million have died, according to a Reuters tally. The United States has the highest number of deaths and infections.

(Reporting by Reuters bureaux; Writing by Nick Macfie and Lisa Shumaker; Editing by Angus MacSwan and Cynthia Osterman)

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Iranian Dissident Caught Between Rock And Hard Place In Cyprus Limbo

Apadana Central — Mon, 28 Sep 2020 12:13:23 +0000

Omid Tootian, an iranian singer Caught in Cyprus Limbo

NICOSIA, Sept 28 (Reuters) – An Iranian dissident who fled his country fearing arrest has fallen foul of politics and COVID-19 restrictions in ethnically split Cyprus.

Since mid-September, Omid Tootian has been living in a small tent in Cyprus’s buffer zone, a United Nations-controlled slice of territory carved out after a war split Cyprus in 1974.

A musician critical of Teheran, Tootian left Iran for Turkey four years ago. Fearful for his safety in Turkey where he claimed other Iranian dissidents had disappeared, he travelled to northern Cyprus, a statelet recognised only by Ankara. From there, he planned to travel to its internationally recognised Greek Cypriot south.

That is where his plans stalled.

“The police didn’t let me in,” Tootian, 45, told Reuters, saying officers on the Greek Cypriot side cited restrictions because of COVID-19. “So I got stuck here in between.”

‘Here’ is a slice of territory about 500 metres wide separating opposing sides in central Nicosia, Cyprus’s ethnically split capital. The buffer zone, as it is known, fans out east to west, 116 miles (180 kms)long.

Tootian has pitched his tent in the overgrown garden of a home abandoned during the war. Shutters with peeling paint hang off hinges on windows still stacked with sandbags. A building next door housing peace groups has the only visible sign of activity in the area.

The area is named after the Ledra Palace, a hotel on the other side of the road where a British contingent of United Nations peacekeepers stays.

After 29 years of being sealed shut, it was the first crossing point opened to the two communities in 2003. In February, the coronavirus outbreak effectively sealed it again.

Now only a few people, and overwhelmingly locals, use the corridor. The Greek Cypriot side does not allow non-Cypriots through because of coronavirus restrictions.

But despite having tested negative for COVID-19, Tootian says, he was still turned back four to five times. He says he will not return to the Turkish Cypriot side because he fears he will be deported to Turkey, and from there, back to Iran.

“I have no choice. I will either stay here or they will take me in, there is no other option,” Tootian said.

The Cypriot interior ministry, responsible for asylum matters, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A spokesperson for the UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency, said they had communicated with Cypriot authorities on the need to allow Tootian access to services to apply for international protection, enshrined in national and EU law.

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Macron Accuses Lebanon Leaders Of ‘Betrayal’ Over Government Failure

Apadana Central — Mon, 28 Sep 2020 07:56:57 +0000

Emmanuel Macron Accuses Lebanon Leaders Of ‘Betrayal’ Over Government Failure | Apadana Media

French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday upped the pressure on Lebanon’s leaders to form a government in the wake of the Beirut port blast, saying their lack of progress represented a “collective betrayal”.

Lebanon remains mired in political economic crisis with no end in sight after its premier-designate stepped down on Saturday following the failure of talks to form a government, despite intense international scrutiny.

At a rare news conference devoted to Lebanon, Emmanuel Macron launched an extraordinary diatribe against a Lebanese political elite who he said had looked to their own selfish interests rather than those of their country.

“They have decided to betray this commitment (to form a government),” Macron told reporters, declaring he was “ashamed” of the country’s leaders.

“I see that the Lebanese authorities and political forces chose to favor their partisan and individual interests to the detriment of the general interest of the country,” he added.

Mustapha Adib’s resignation on Saturday ended efforts to hammer out a reformist government in the wake of a colossal August 4 explosion in Beirut that killed 190 people, injured thousands and ravaged large parts of the capital.

Political parties had pledged in early September, during a visit to Lebanon by Macron, to form within two weeks a cabinet of independent ministers tasked with ending the country’s economic malaise.

Macron has visited the former French protectorate twice since the blast, meeting during his last trip Hezbollah representatives as he sought to bring all political sides behind a road map to lift the country out of crisis.

In August, he chaired a video conference that saw world leaders pledge more than 250 million euros ($295 million) for the country.

– ‘Collective betrayal’ –

Macron said none of the leaders of Lebanon — where in the wake of the 1975-1990 civil war power is traditionally shared between Shiites, Sunnis and Christians — had been up to the task.

“All of them bet on the worst case scenario for the sake of saving themselves, the interests of their family or their clan,” he seethed.

“I therefore have decided to take note of this collective betrayal and the refusal of Lebanese officials to engage in good faith.”

Under the Lebanese constitution, the president must now hold further talks to nominate another prime minister to form a government, but it is a process that risks dragging out and even failing.

“I don’t expect a government anytime soon,” Sami Atallah, who heads the Lebanese Centre for Policy Studies, told AFP in Beirut.

“There was a chance, there was a lot of pressure to form a government and it didn’t happen,” he said, adding there was a “bigger problem” of geopolitical tensions, especially between the United States and Iran.

Adib’s efforts were hampered by the claims of two Shiite formations, the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement, and its ally Amal, led by parliament speaker Nabih Berri, who demanded the finance portfolio.

According to observers, the Shiite allies dug in their heels after recent US sanctions were imposed on a minister of the Amal party and two companies affiliated with Hezbollah.

In a warning to Hezbollah, Macron said the group should “not think it is more powerful than it is”.

“It must show that it respects all the Lebanese. And in recent days days, it has clearly shown the opposite,” said Macron.

– ‘Last chance’ –

The French president said that the road map for political and economic reform set out on his last visit to Beirut on September 1 was still on the table but time was running out.

“It is now up to Lebanese officials to seize this last chance themselves,” he said.

The UN envoy to Lebanon, Jan Kubis, on Saturday had reacted with disbelief to the failure to form a government: “Politicians, have you really scuppered this unique chance created by France?”

Even before the devastating Beirut port blast, the country was already mired in its worst economic crisis in decades, and its entrenched political class was dealing with widespread popular discontent.

After the country for the first time defaulted on its sovereign debt in March, it launched talks with the International Monetary Fund towards lifting the country out of crisis, but those discussions soon stalled.

Many are worried the country is headed from bad to worse, with daily novel coronavirus infection figures on the rise and increasing security incidents reported in recent weeks.

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The Coronavirus Pandemic Will Forever Alter the World Order

Marjaneh Rouhani — Mon, 06 Apr 2020 03:11:29 +0000

Author: Mr. Kissinger served as secretary of state and national security adviser in the Nixon and Ford administrations.

The U.S. must protect its citizens from disease while starting the urgent work of planning for a new epoch.

The surreal atmosphere of the Covid-19 pandemic calls to mind how I felt as a young man in the 84th Infantry Division during the Battle of the Bulge. Now, as in late 1944, there is a sense of inchoate danger, aimed not at any particular person, but striking randomly and with devastation. But there is an important difference between that faraway time and ours. American endurance then was fortified by an ultimate national purpose. Now, in a divided country, efficient and farsighted government is necessary to overcome obstacles unprecedented in magnitude and global scope. Sustaining the public trust is crucial to social solidarity, to the relation of societies with each other, and to international peace and stability.

Nations cohere and flourish on the belief that their institutions can foresee calamity, arrest its impact and restore stability. When the Covid-19 pandemic is over, many countries’ institutions will be perceived as having failed. Whether this judgment is objectively fair is irrelevant. The reality is the world will never be the same after the coronavirus. To argue now about the past only makes it harder to do what has to be done.

The coronavirus has struck with unprecedented scale and ferocity. Its spread is exponential: U.S. cases are doubling every fifth day. At this writing, there is no cure. Medical supplies are insufficient to cope with the widening waves of cases. Intensive-care units are on the verge, and beyond, of being overwhelmed. Testing is inadequate to the task of identifying the extent of infection, much less reversing its spread. A successful vaccine could be 12 to 18 months away.

The U.S. administration has done a solid job in avoiding immediate catastrophe. The ultimate test will be whether the virus’s spread can be arrested and then reversed in a manner and at a scale that maintains public confidence in Americans’ ability to govern themselves. The crisis effort, however vast and necessary, must not crowd out the urgent task of launching a parallel enterprise for the transition to the post-coronavirus order.

Leaders are dealing with the crisis on a largely national basis, but the virus’s society-dissolving effects do not recognize borders. While the assault on human health will—hopefully—be temporary, the political and economic upheaval it has unleashed could last for generations. No country, not even the U.S., can in a purely national effort overcome the virus. Addressing the necessities of the moment must ultimately be coupled with a global collaborative vision and program. If we cannot do both in tandem, we will face the worst of each.

Drawing lessons from the development of the Marshall Plan and the Manhattan Project, the U.S. is obliged to undertake a major effort in three domains. First, shore up global resilience to infectious disease. Triumphs of medical science like the polio vaccine and the eradication of smallpox, or the emerging statistical-technical marvel of medical diagnosis through artificial intelligence, have lulled us into a dangerous complacency. We need to develop new techniques and technologies for infection control and commensurate vaccines across large populations. Cities, states and regions must consistently prepare to protect their people from pandemics through stockpiling, cooperative planning and exploration at the frontiers of science.

Second, strive to heal the wounds to the world economy. Global leaders have learned important lessons from the 2008 financial crisis. The current economic crisis is more complex: The contraction unleashed by the coronavirus is, in its speed and global scale, unlike anything ever known in history. And necessary public-health measures such as social distancing and closing schools and businesses are contributing to the economic pain. Programs should also seek to ameliorate the effects of impending chaos on the world’s most vulnerable populations.

Third, safeguard the principles of the liberal world order. The founding legend of modern government is a walled city protected by powerful rulers, sometimes despotic, other times benevolent, yet always strong enough to protect the people from an external enemy. Enlightenment thinkers reframed this concept, arguing that the purpose of the legitimate state is to provide for the fundamental needs of the people: security, order, economic well-being, and justice. Individuals cannot secure these things on their own. The pandemic has prompted an anachronism, a revival of the walled city in an age when prosperity depends on global trade and movement of people.

The world’s democracies need to defend and sustain their Enlightenment values. A global retreat from balancing power with legitimacy will cause the social contract to disintegrate both domestically and internationally. Yet this millennial issue of legitimacy and power cannot be settled simultaneously with the effort to overcome the Covid-19 plague. Restraint is necessary on all sides—in both domestic politics and international diplomacy. Priorities must be established.

We went on from the Battle of the Bulge into a world of growing prosperity and enhanced human dignity. Now, we live an epochal period. The historic challenge for leaders is to manage the crisis while building the future. Failure could set the world on fire.

Mr. Kissinger served as secretary of state and national security adviser in the Nixon and Ford administrations. First published in WSJ.

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COVID-19 UPDATE

Marjaneh Rouhani — Thu, 12 Mar 2020 19:12:39 +0000

A new study suggests that the novel COVID-19 can remain in the air for up to three hours, and live on surfaces such as plastic and stainless steel for up to three days.

The research, published in the medRxiv depository, also notes that the virus can remain on copper surfaces for four hours and carboard for up to 24 hours. The research found it could stay on stainless steel and plastic for anywhere between two and three days.

“Our results indicate that aerosol and fomite transmission of HCoV-19 is plausible, as the virus can remain viable in aerosols for multiple hours and on surfaces up to days,” the researchers wrote in the study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed.

Another study published in February concluded that if COVID-19 is similar to other coronaviruses, such as SARS or MERS, it could live on surfaces like metal, glass and plastic for up to nine days. By comparison, the flu virus can only live on surfaces for approximately 48 hours.

That study, published in the Journal of Hospital Infection, suggested that coronaviruses could be “efficiently inactivated” with disinfectants that contain:

“62–71 percent ethanol, 0.5 percent hydrogen peroxide or 0.1 percent sodium hypochlorite within 1 minute,” adding that other agents that contain “0.05–0.2% benzalkonium chloride or 0.02 percent chlorhexidine digluconate are less effective.”

Currently, there is no specific medicine to cure or treat COVID-19.

More than 127,000 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed globally, including over 80,000 in China and 1,323 in the U.S., according to the latest data

Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Cases by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University (JHU)

Total Confirmed

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

COVID-19 has been declared a Public Health emergency of International Concern by the World Health Organization and the United States Department of Health and Human Services. During such events it is important to conserve limited resources, such as Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). Specific PPE is necessary for associates to wear while providing care to patients suspected or confirmed with infection. In addition, masks are necessary for potentially contagious persons to wear while in Ascension care facilities.
Every item of PPE, in particular masks and respirators, is critically important. Please follow these important guidelines:
- Do not waste PPE
- Do not store PPE in non-designated locations where it may be taken or lost
- If you see evidence of waste or inappropriate use report immediately to your supervisor
- Do not wear PPE inappropriately in the halls (e.g. gloves, etc.)
- Do not take PPE from one location to be used or stored in another location
- Reserve procedure masks (ear loops) for patients and visitors only
- Preserve supplies of surgical masks (tie-ons) for ambulatory settings and respirators (N95s) for acute care high risk settings
- Use gowns for patient care only, and minimize the overall number of people entering a room for the same task (e.g. shadowing; rounding teams, etc.)

Important prevention guidelines

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the immediate health risk from COVID-19 to the general American public is low. The best ways to prevent the spread of viruses is to follow normal daily precautions including:
- Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. Use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60 percent alcohol if soap and water are not available.
- Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands
- Avoid close contact with people who are sick
- Stay home when you are sick
- Cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue, then throw the tissue in the trash
- Wear a mask when going out in public if you think you have a contagious respiratory infection.
- Anyone who believes they may have had contact with someone who is confirmed to have, or is being evaluated for COVID-19, should contact their physician. The CDC recommends that individuals call ahead before going to a doctor’s office or emergency room and inform clinical staff about symptoms and any recent travel.
More information can be found at cdc.gov.

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