Tag Archives: WorldNews

Man arrested after cutting through fence to escape Hamilton isolation facility

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A 50-year-old who has twice tested negative for Covid-19 is believed to have cut through a 1.8m fence at a Hamilton isolation hotel to go to a liquor store.

Fauci says states with surging Covid-19 cases should pause reopening efforts

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Public health expert made remark after US set world record for most new Covid-19 cases reported in one day

After the US set a world record for most new Covid-19 cases in one day, with 60,000 reported on Wednesday, Dr Anthony Fauci, a senior member of the White House coronavirus taskforce, said states needed to pause reopening efforts.

“Rather than think in terms of reverting back down to a complete shutdown, I would think we need to get the states pausing in their opening process,” the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases told the Hill.

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Supreme Court Rules Trump Can’t Block New York Prosecutors From Subpoenaing His Tax Returns

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The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that Donald Trump cannot block his accounting firm from complying with a grand jury subpoena for copies of his tax records.

The Court ruled 7-2 in favor of the grand jury subpoena, in a decision written by Chief Justice John Roberts. 

* This is a developing story.

The U.S. Is Running Out of Masks and Gloves Again as Coronavirus Cases Spike

“I’m not going to tell you we’re able to meet all demand, but there’s significantly less unfulfilled orders today than in April,” Rear Adm. John Polowczyk, whom Trump put in charge of coronavirus-related supplies, told the Washington Post “I have not found a hospital system that is in threat of running out. … I don’t have the sense of there being severe shortages.”

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The U.S. is experiencing a coronavirus deja vu.

Just like in early March, cases are spiking across the country, hospitals are overwhelmed, testing is lagging, and the White House doesn’t have a concrete plan to address the situation.

And just like in the early days of the outbreak, the country is once again running out of gowns, masks, gloves and other personal protective equipment (PPE).

On Wednesday, speaking at White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing, Vice President Mike Pence claimed that PPE supplies remain “very strong” but in the same breath, he said the Trump administration is now encouraging healthcare workers “to use some of the best practices” to “preserve and reuse” face masks and other protective equipment.

While the White House claims there are no “severe shortages” of PPE, health care professionals including doctors and nurses in hospitals and clinics across the country are telling a very different story.

In Texas, which is experiencing one of the biggest spikes in COVID-19 cases of any state, doctors at a hospital in Houston are being told to reuse single-use N95 respirator masks for up to 15 days before throwing them out.

The National Nurses United, the country’s largest organization of registered nurses, found 85% of members were forced to reuse disposable N95 masks while treating coronavirus patients.

The country’s second-largest nursing organization, the American Nurses Association, found 79% of its members were asked to reuse masks and 45% reported PPE shortages at their facility.

But it’s not just hospitals that are suffering from significant shortages of supplies.

The American Medical Association told the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) that centers providing primary care, chemotherapy, and minor surgeries have struggled to reopen because they are unable to secure PPE.

Last week the AMA called for more transparency on PPE supplies in a letter to the emergency agency, saying that there is a “lack of data to help us ascertain whether the central problem is in the availability of raw material, production backlogs, gaps in the distribution systems, or some combination of all three.”

The AMA sent a second letter to Pence last week, urging the White House to invoke the Defense Production Act to compel manufacturers to make more N95 masks and gowns.

Healthcare workers are among the worst-hit groups by the coronavirus. Almost 100,000 have been infected and at least 500 have died, according to incomplete data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The real number is thought to be much higher.

Part of the problem is simply finding suppliers to fill the orders of PPE. Last month Washington state’s Democratic governor, Jay Inslee, said officials had struggled to find suppliers — either domestic or international.

A report from FEMA last month showed a worrying shortage of medical gowns and no increase in production of PPE since March, when doctors and nurses were reduced to wearing trash bags to protect themselves.

In a letter to Trump last month, Inslee said he has tried to buy $400 million in equipment, but that only 10% of orders have been filled

Inslee urged trump to “use the Defense Production Act to increase domestic PPE production necessary to meet current and projected needs for all workers in all sectors.”

The U.S. passed 3 million confirmed coronavirus infections on Wednesday, with states like Texas, California, Florida, and Arizona reporting major increases in cases. In Tulsa, a senior health official said Wednesday that a Trump rally in the city in late June “more than likely contributed” to a spike in cases there.

But despite the growing case numbers, rising death total, and increasingly vocal concern among health professionals about PPE shortage, the Trump administration still appears to be burying its head in the sand, with no concrete plans to address the crisis.

Instead, Trump is pushing to reopen the economy and falsely claiming that the spike in new cases is simply down to increased testing. And the man charged with organizing the nation’s PPE supplies is following suit.

I’m not going to tell you we’re able to meet all demand, but there’s significantly less unfulfilled orders today than in April,” Rear Adm. John Polowczyk, whom Trump put in charge of coronavirus-related supplies, told the Washington Post “I have not found a hospital system that is in threat of running out. … I don’t have the sense of there being severe shortages.”

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Cover: Shania Dod, right, collects a sample at a United Memorial Medical Center COVID-19 testing site Wednesday, July 8, 2020, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)