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Added on the 19/05/2020 14:00:00 - Copyright : EFE Inglés
Just days before a hotly contested senate runoff election, GOP Sen. David Perdue of Georgia is going into quarantine. CNN reports the Republican senator and his wife have tested negative for COVID-19. However, after coming into close contact with someone who tested positive for the novel coronavirus, the pair have chosen to self-quarantine. Perdue is campaigning in a runoff against Democrat Jon Ossoff, who has raised tens of millions of dollars in donations. Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler is also fighting to hold onto her US Senate seat in Georgia against Democrat Rev. Raphael Warnock. If Democrats win both seats, they will control the Senate next year. Any 50-50 ties will be broken by incoming Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.
Rome, Nov 4 (EFE), (Camera: Marco Todarello).- The city of Milan, Italy’s economic heart and capital of one of the country's worst-stricken regions by the second wave of coronavirus, has opened a new so-called Hotel Covid to house asymptomatic patients unable to isolate at home.Authorities in Lombardy, the first region in Europe to impose lockdown measures during the initial wave of the virus in spring, say the situation has become “critical” again, particularly in Milan, where Covid-19 was circulating uncontrolled.Lombardy accounts for 100,000 of Italy’s 700,000 confirmed cases and infections are on the up, with around 9,000 detected each day. Test positivity is also rising, sitting around 22%, the vast majority are asymptomatic.In spring Milan authorities set up a coronavirus quarantine center in the four-star Michelangelo in the city center but this time they have chosen accommodation on the outskirts of the city, a building originally slated to become a home for older people.The Residenza Adriano, named after the neighborhood around it, offers 70 rooms with double or single beds and 17 apartments for families of two to three people.A night’s stay at the hotel costs 100 euros, which is covered by the national health service.SOUNDBITES OF ANDREA CASIRAGHI, DIRECTOR OF THE ESTABLISHMENT:“We started to receive guests yesterday. These are people who have tested positive, are without symptoms, but self-reliant and don’t need any medical assistance. They are sent here by the emergency services if they can prove that they are unable to quarantine at home.” “They are, for example, people who live with big families and they don’t have a lot of space or are smaller families but, for example, don’t have more than one bathroom, so spaces like this are necessary.”
World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus will be self-quarantining over the coming days. Gizmodo reports the move comes after Ghebreyesus came into close contact with someone who tested positive for the coronavirus. Tedros tweeted Sunday evening that he was well and asymptomatic, but he was planning to isolate himself according to the WHO’s own protocols. It is critically important that we all comply with health guidance. This is how we will break chains of #COVID19 transmission, suppress the virus, and protect health systems. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus Director-General, World Health Organization The WHO is based in Geneva, which is currently being clobbered with the record-breaking number of nine thousand cases of COVID-19 per day.
The CDC used to define exposure to COVID-19 as being within 6 feet of an infected person for more than 15 consecutive minutes. But according to Business Insider, a new study shows a correctional officer got sick after a series of very brief interactions with inmates who later tested positive. That's led the CDC to change its guidance to say that more than 15 minutes of cumulative exposure to someone with COVID-19 puts you at risk. The new guideline informs how health agencies conduct contact tracing. It now stipulates that anyone who has been within 6 feet of an infected person 'for a total of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period,' should quarantine. And it's cumulative exposure that matters — not continuous time. So spending five minutes each with three infected persons produces a fifteen-minute exposure.
The World Health Organization knows what the single most effective method of controlling an epidemic is: quarantining. It's complete isolation from other people, including those you'd normally live with and breathe around, to the fullest extent possible. In other words, keeping sick people away from every other person until they're not sick anymore and the chain of transmission has been broken. That means not going to work. It means not going to the grocery store. It means not socializing with friends. It means not having people over at your home. Maria Van Kerkhove Technical Lead for COVID-19, WHO But WHO officials say there's not a country in the world facing rising coronavirus cases that is actually practicing effective, systematic quarantining. New confirmed cases are rising particularly quickly in the US, UK, Italy, and Belgium. However, the increase is not limited to those spots.
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