CORONAVIRUS

Coronavirus updates Thursday: Oregon smashes daily virus record with nearly 400 new cases

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Respiratory therapist Nathan Armstrong prepares to take a sample from a patient's nostril during July 2020 drive-up testing for COVID-19 at McKenzie Willamette Hospital in Springfield.

PORTLAND — Oregon smashed its previous daily record for COVID-19 cases on Thursday with a 389 new diagnoses and six deaths.

The number of cases was the highest seen in the state since the start of the pandemic, the Oregon Health Authority said, and brings total cases statewide to 11,188. There have been at least 220 deaths.

State health officials attributed the high numbers to workplace outbreaks and community spread and have continually warned about concerning upticks in positive COVID-19 tests in rural counties.

On Thursday, Umatilla County reported 55 new cases for a total of 938 cases. Fourteen people are hospitalized in the county 210 miles east of Portland and seven have died, the East Oregonian reported.

Many of those cases come from an outbreak at a potato processing facility.

Malheur County saw 31 new cases announced Thursday for a total of over 200 cases. The county is one of eight on the state's "watch list" because of the rapid spread of the coronavirus.

The county has seen its case numbers triple since June 23 and experienced one of the highest rates of new cases in the state in the week leading up to July 4, according to the Malheur County Health Department.

The reported deaths Wednesday were in Crook, Marion, Umatilla and Clackamas counties.

— The Associated Press

U.S. surpasses 3 million cases — no end in sight

The U.S. now has 3 million documented cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, a virulent bug that crawled into the national consciousness early in the year and now is likely to consume the rest of it.

The milestone reached Wednesday represents roughly a quarter of the world’s cases and the same percentage of its deaths. It took the U.S. a little more than three months to hit 1 million cases on April 28. It took about half that time, 44 days, to get to 2 million on June 11, and only 26 days to reach 3 million on July 8. By that gauge, if no new measures are taken, 4 million cases could be tallied as soon as July 22.

"Like a runner coming from behind in a macabre race, it has surpassed the death toll of many diseases so many Americans consider important," says Steven Woolf, director emeritus of the Center on Society and Health at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.

— USA TODAY

Harvard, MIT sue Trump administration over ICE foreign-student rule

A lawsuit filed on Wednesday by Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology challenges the Trump administration's attempt to bar foreign students from attending colleges that will teach entirely online in the fall term.

ICE announced policy changes on Monday that would keep international students from entering the U.S. or make them subject to deportation if the colleges they were enrolled in taught remotely.

Many schools are planning to teach classes remotely because of the coronavirus pandemic. Trump has tweeted his displeasure with the guidelines set by the CDC for school reopening, calling them "very tough and expensive."

Harvard President Lawrence Bacow said the ICE order was unexpected, "its cruelty surpassed only by its recklessness."

— USA TODAY

Coronavirus surge in Tulsa is 'likely' result of Donald Trump's rally, protests

Tulsa Health Department Executive Director Bruce Dart said at a news conference Wednesday that it was "more than likely" the large gatherings in the last few weeks that added to a record number of cases this week, including Trump's Tulsa rally and protests.

A record 261 new cases of the virus were recorded in the county Monday, just over two weeks after Trump's rally. An additional 206 cases were reported on Tuesday, according to the Tulsa Health Department.

"The past few days we've had almost 500 cases, and we know we had several large events a little over two weeks ago, which is about right, so I guess we just connect the dots," Dart said, citing Trump's rally and "other protests."

Trump's Tulsa rally drew some 6,200 attendees and was met with hundreds of protesters.

— USA TODAY

Ivy League cancels fall sports in what could be barometer for major college football

The Ivy League will not have sports until Jan. 1 due to concerns over the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the conference announced Wednesday. .

The decision impacts the entire fall season for football as well as men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s cross country, and women’s field hockey and volleyball. The delay on winter sports includes men's and women's basketball and hockey.

“As a leadership group, we have a responsibility to make decisions that are in the best interest of the students who attend our institutions, as well as the faculty and staff who work at our schools." The Ivy League Council of Presidents said in a joint statement.

"A decision on the remaining winter and spring sports competition calendar, and on whether fall sport competition would be feasible in the spring, will be determined at a later date."

— USA TODAY

'A gut punch': United Airlines to lay off up to 36,000 US employees in October

In a memo to employees, Chicago-based United Airlines said 36,000 employees, or 45% of its front-line workers in the USA and more than a third of its overall workforce of 95,000, face layoffs on or around Oct. 1. The most affected groups: flight attendants and airport customer service and gate agents, which account for 26,000 of the 36,000.

The airline calls them involuntary furloughs because most of the affected employees will be eligible to be recalled when travel demand returns under terms of their union contracts.

Airlines are prohibited from laying off workers until Oct. 1 under the payroll protection provisions of the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act.

— USA TODAY

Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander: WHO withdrawal could interfere with vaccine development

A top Senate Republican sharply criticized President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the World Health Organization, saying it could jeopardize the development of a COVID-19 vaccine and impair efforts to stop the global pandemic.

"Withdrawing U.S. membership could, among other things, interfere with clinical trials that are essential to the development of vaccines, which citizens of the United States as well as others in the world need," Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., chairman of the Senate health committee, said in a statement Tuesday after the White House formally notified Congress it had begun the WHO withdraw process.

Alexander also said withdrawing from the WHO could make it harder for the United States to work with other countries to stop the spread of coronavirus and other diseases before they hit the U.S.

— USA TODAY

CDC revising back-to-school guidelines after Donald Trump complains on Twitter

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is revising its guidance on reopening schools after President Donald Trump tweeted his disagreement with them, Vice President Mike Pence said Wednesday. Trump tweeted dissatisfaction with the CDC's "very tough & expensive guidelines" for opening schools as the coronavirus pandemic continues. He also threatened to withhold funding from schools that don't fill their classrooms this fall.

"As we work with Congress on the next round of state support, we're going to be looking for ways to give states a strong incentive and encouragement to get kids back to school," Pence said at a news conference at the U.S. Department of Education.

— USA TODAY

Help wanted: At least 30,000 volunteers sought to test vaccines

The National Institutes of Health launched the COVID-19 Prevention Trials Network, part of the effort to find volunteers to test possible COVID-19 vaccines. The network is a combination of four existing federal clinical trial networks at over 100 hospitals and clinics nationwide. It will help researchers find the at least 30,000 volunteers, especially people in populations who are most affected by COVID-19, including racial and ethnic minorities, the elderly and pregnant women. The first group of volunteers is expected to test the vaccine candidate developed by Moderna. That study will begin this summer, NIH said. You can volunteer here.

“Community engagement, particularly with the communities most vulnerable to COVID-19’s severe outcomes, will be critical to the success of this research,” said National Institutes of Health director Dr. Francis Collins.

— USA TODAY

Ryder Cup golf event postponed until 2021

The Ryder Cup, among the premiere events in professional golf, was postponed for one year Wednesday, the latest major sports event to fall victim to the pandemic.

PGA of America and Ryder Cup Europe and the PGA TOUR jointly announced Wednesday the one-year delay. The tournament, played every two years, features a team of elite U.S. golfers against a team representing the rest of the world. It was set for Sept. 22-27, at Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wisconsin, but has been pushed back a year, to Sept. 21-26, 2021.

— USA TODAY

China rips US withdrawal from WHO, dismisses 'habitual quitter'

The United States decision to drop out of the World Health Organization damages the global fight against COVID-19 and reflects U.S. unilateralism, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said Wednesday. Zhao Lijian made the remarks a day after the U.S. formally submitted its notification of withdrawal to United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres. President Donald Trump has blasted the multilateral institution as an ineffective tool of China.

"This move has once again revealed the U.S. side's pursuit of unilateralism as a habitual quitter," Zhao said. "We also call on the international community to ... increase support for the WHO, and jointly safeguard global public health security."

— USA TODAY

WHO: Evidence 'emerging' of airborne transmission of virus

Evidence of airborne transmission of the coronavirus in "crowded, closed, poorly ventilated settings... cannot be ruled out," said Benedetta Allegranzi, the World Heath technical lead for infection prevention and control. The acknowledgement comes days after 239 health experts, in an open letter to the international science community, urged their colleagues to take airborne transmission seriously as COVID-19 cases rise.

The World Health Organization had not recognized such transmission except in health care settings through “aerosol-generating procedures.” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has called airborne, person-to-person transmission over long distances "unlikely.” But Dr. Matthew Heinz, hospitalist at Tucson Medical Center in Arizona, said there’s plenty of anecdotal evidence "based on who I’m admitting and their described behavior.”

— USA TODAY

Lane County COVID-19 ZIP code map

Lane County Public Health has posted a map of known cases of COVID-19 organized by ZIP code on its page of Testing, Patient and Resource Information.

By the numbers: COVID-19 cases in Oregon

Reported by Oregon Health Authority, updated at 8 a.m. Thursday.

Case investigations

11,188: Total cases confirmed by test and presumptive cases

230: Total deaths

10,632: Tests that are positive

270,887: Tests that were negative

281,519: Total number of tests given

Cases by age group

0 to 9: 440 (4%)

10 to 19: 937 (8%)

20 to 29: 2,316 (21%)

30 to 39: 1,986 (18%), 2 deaths

40 to 49: 1,841 (17%), 3 deaths

50 to 59: 1,529 (14%), 11 deaths

60 to 69: 1,037 (9%), 43 deaths

70 to 79: 639 (6%), 63 deaths

80 and older: 443 (4%), 108 deaths

Not available: 20 (0%)

Sex

Female: 5,824 cases (52%), 102 deaths (44%)

Male: 5,334 cases (48%), 128 deaths (56%)

Non-binary: 2 case (0%), 0 deaths

Not available: 28 cases (0%), 0 deaths

Hospitalized

Hospitalized: 1,162 (10%)

Not hospitalized: 8,829 (79%)

Not provided: 1,197 (11%)

Source: Oregon Health Authority

Number of US cases by state

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Directories of open local businesses, including those doing delivery, take-out

The Eugene and Springfield chambers of commerce are compiling listings of local businesses that are open and the modified ways they are offering their goods and services to make it easier for people to support them while staying home.

Read the full story, including links to the lists, here.

Closures, cancellations and postponements

See The Register-Guard’s cancellation list here.

Healthcare workers: Tell us your stories

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People reported to have contactracted novel coronavirus in US, by day

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Editor’s note

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