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  • 11/28/2020 8:55 AM | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    If you are planning to travel outside of your home state over the holidays, check the virus rates where you plan to visit and assess the risk. The C.D.C. offers a series of recommendations for safety:  wear a face mask in public, wash your hands frequently, avoid touching your face, keep six feet from others, cover coughs and sneezes, and use drive-through service and curbside pickup at restaurants and stores.

    Current restrictions in the United States for leisure travelers change frequently when case numbers increase or decrease. Many states do not apply them to those staying for less than 24 hours. Some municipalities or counties may have more stringent regulations. There are generally exemptions for essential workers who are on the job, including health care workers, members of the military and others, but even they may be subject to some restrictions

    Click here to check on travel restrictions within the US

  • 11/20/2020 8:41 AM | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends against traveling or gathering for the holiday, urging Americans to consider celebrating Thanksgiving in their own households.

     CDC officials were alarmed to see 1 million new cases reported across the United States within the past week. With the U.S. pandemic death toll reaching  250,000, CDC warned that family and friends gathering ovcr the holidays could inadvertently bring inadvertently bring the coronavirus with them. 

    Read the CDC Holiday Guidelines


  • 11/13/2020 11:38 AM | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention publicly acknowledged that for the first time, writing in a scientific bulletin posted to its website this week that ‘the benefit of masking is derived from the combination of source control and personal protection for the mask wearer.’ Masks are neither completely selfless nor selfish — they help everyone,” Ben Guarino, Lena H. Sun and Ariana Eunjung Cha report in the Washington Post.

    Prior messages stressed that masks were primarily a way to protect others. But growing scientific evidence indicates that masks also protect the wearer.   CDC is expanding its effort to encourage mask wearing and other precautions as the highest-ever rates of coronavirus infection are reported across the US.

     



  • 10/22/2020 3:17 PM | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, millions of Americans travel by plane, train, and automobile to see family. 

    The Transportation Security Administration states that the number of people flying is climbing but is still below half of what it was in 2019.  Many states are lifting quarantine restrictions but the Covid-19  infection, hospitalization and death numbers continue to increase in many parts of the country.  And, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is encouraging individuals to stay home and protect themselves and others, and warns that travel increases the chance of getting and spreading the disease.  So it is not surprising that many people have not made up their minds about holiday travel in 2020.

    The Washington Post talked to experts and created an interactive guide  to help you plan your holiday travel. 

  • 10/12/2020 12:17 PM | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    If so, the plasma in your blood may contain COVID-19 antibodies that can attack the virus. This convalescent plasma is being evaluated as a possible treatment for currently ill COVID-19 patients, so your donation could help save the lives of patients battling this disease! Eligibility requirements:

    • You are at least 17 years old and weigh 110 lbs.
    • You generally feel well, even if you're being treated for a chronic condition. 
    • Have a prior, verified diagnosis of COVID-19, but are now symptom free.

    To sign up to donate, fill out the form at the link below or call 1-800-733-2767

    https://www.redcrossblood.org/donate-blood/dlp/plasma-donations-from-recovered-covid-19-patients.html#donorform

    For additional info regarding convalescent plasma, check at the FAQs at:

    https://www.redcrossblood.org/faq.html#donating-blood-covid-19-convalescent-plasma


  • 10/02/2020 11:13 AM | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    The New York Times offers free information about the Coronavirus pandemic. 

    You can sign up to receive the Coronavirus Briefing, a free newsletter from The New York Times. Sign up here.

  • 09/04/2020 10:15 AM | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    By Michael Carroll

    If so, the plasma in your blood may contain COVID-19 antibodies that can attack the virus. This convalescent plasma is being evaluated as a possible treatment for currently ill COVID-19 patients, so your donation could help save the lives of patients battling this disease! Eligibility requirements:

    ·         You are at least 17 years old and weigh 110 lbs.

    ·         You generally feel well, even if you're being treated for a chronic condition. 

    ·         Have a prior, verified diagnosis of COVID-19, but are now symptom free.

    To sign up to donate, fill out the form at the link below or call 1-800-733-2767

    https://www.redcrossblood.org/donate-blood/dlp/plasma-donations-from-recovered-covid-19-patients.html#donorform

    For additional info regarding convalescent plasma, check at the FAQs at:

    https://www.redcrossblood.org/faq.html#donating-blood-covid-19-convalescent-plasma


  • 09/01/2020 10:36 AM | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    Data compiled by The New York Times looks at the Coronavirus pandemic across hundreds of U.S. metro areas.  During the last two weeks of August, the New York City Metro area had a new case percent rate of .2 per 1,000 population. And the following metro areas had the highest percent of new cases per 1,000 population:

    1. Muskogee, OK        9.1 new cases per 1,000 population
    2. Ames, IA                 8.7
    3. Iowa City, IA            7.9
    4. Auburn-Opelike, AL 7.5
    5. Statesboro, GA        6.2

    The cumulative case rate since the start of the outbreak for the New York Metro area is 27.6 per 1,000 population.  Metros with the highest cumulative case rates per 1,000 population since the start of the outbreak:

    1. El Centro, CA          59.2 per 1,000 population
    2. Gallup, NM              58.9
    3. Yuma, AZ                57.2
    4. Eagle Pass, TX       55.5
    5. Show Low, AZ         50.5

    Click here for the link to the New York Times article

  • 08/23/2020 9:14 PM | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    Face masks are not an essential piece of clothing mandated by the majority of states and businesses.  But now that masks are required how do I take care of my mask, how do I keep it clean?

    Reusing a face mask over and over again becomes dirty as you regularly touch it to put it on and take it off.  For cloth masks, a daily washing is a must.  Treat your cloth mask like underwear and change it daily. Single-use surgical masks are designed for one day use.  And remember washing your hands before touching your mask will keep it cleaner.

    Click here for the best ways to clean and store face mask as researched by The Washington Post


  • 08/15/2020 2:42 PM | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    https://www.aarp.org/health/conditions-treatments/info-2020/face-masks-ranked.html?

    Some coverings work better than others when it comes to blocking virus spray

    by Rachel Nania, AARP, Updated August 12, 2020 

    You don't need a fancy medical-grade mask to deter the spread of the coronavirus, but some face coverings do work better than others, according to a new study published in the journal Science Advances.

    Researchers at Duke University tested the effectiveness of 14 commonly available masks and found that surgical masks and N95 respirators without valves worked the best at blocking respiratory droplets from projecting into the air when a person talks. A variety of double-layer polypropylene and cotton masks also reduced a significant amount of spray from normal speech.

    Least effective, however, were bandanas, knitted masks and neck fleeces (also called gaiter masks), the latter of which may be worse than wearing no mask at all. The researchers found that neck fleeces actually dispersed more spray into the air, not less, because the material broke down larger respiratory droplets into smaller particles.

    "Considering that smaller particles are airborne longer than large droplets (larger droplets sink faster), the use of such a mask might be counterproductive,” the study's researchers wrote.Face masks are most effective when worn by all

    In recent months, public health experts have stressed the importance of wearing face masks as a way to deter the spread of the coronavirus — especially by asymptomatic carriers, or people who don't know they have the virus because they never develop symptoms. Face coverings act as a barrier by helping to keep respiratory particles from escaping an infected individual and landing on another person.

    "Just speaking lets these particles get out, and these particles can carry viruses,” including the virus that causes COVID-19, explains Eric Westman, M.D., an associate professor of medicine at Duke University School of Medicine and a coauthor on the study. And knowing which masks are best at blocking these particles can help guide consumer decisions that impact the spread of the virus, he adds. The researchers designed a setup consisting of a box, a laser, a lens and a cellphone camera to test the masks.

    Want to know how your mask fares? You don't need a team of Duke scientists and a high-powered laser to find out. A quick and easy way to tell if a mask is good at blocking particles is to pull it tight and hold it up to the sky. “If you can see daylight through the mask, it's not so good. Or if you can take it and blow really hard, and [your air] just goes right through, that's not blocking much,” Westman says.

    His advice to the general public, and especially to those concerned about their risk for severe illness from a coronavirus infection, is to “wear the best one that you can.” If a standard three-layer surgical mask is available to you — and some are now showing up on store shelves — go for it. But know that your double-layer DIY cotton mask is also fine in the community setting. Just be sure not to wear an N95 mask with a valve, Westman says. These masks release exhaled air, which defeats the purpose of wearing the mask to protect others.

    Westman says more research is needed to test mask effectiveness, but in the meantime, the study shows that accessible, low-cost options do work.

    "If everyone wore a mask, we could stop up to 99 percent of these droplets before they reach someone else,” Westman said in a Duke University news release. “In the absence of a vaccine or antiviral medicine, it's the one proven way to protect others as well as yourself."

    Editor’s Note: The sidebar of this article was updated to clarify the most effective and least effective masks, according to the Duke University study.


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