Corona Updates WorldWide

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released its long-awaited tips for minimizing everyday risks of getting and spreading COVID-19, including tips for going to the gas station.

In general, the CDC says, the more closely you interact with others and the longer that interaction, the higher the risk of COVID-19 spread. Read about the 15 questions to ask yourself before venturing out during the COVID-19 pandemic here.

These are the CDC’s five tips for getting gas:

1. Wear a cloth face covering.

MORE: Still need a cloth face covering? Learn to make one here

MORE: 7 recommendations to keeping your COVID-19 cloth masks clean

2. Use social distancing (stay at least 6 feet away from others).

3. Use disinfecting wipes on handles and buttons before you touch them (if available).

4. After fueling, use a hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol.

5. Wash your hands for at least 20 seconds when you get home or somewhere with soap and water.

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Temperatures in the United States have been soaring from coast to coast, and with summer coming into full swing, it's only going to get hotter. Even though social distancing measures in most places have been eased, guidelines on wearing masks while out in public to curb the spread of COVID-19 have remained the same.

Now that summer's here, as of June 20, and the weather could be even hotter than normal in some places -- let's face it: Wearing a mask will be even more uncomfortable than usual.

But the benefit of wearing a mask is crucial.

In a study published last week, researchers from Texas A&M University, the California Institute of Technology and the University of California San Diego, concluded "that wearing of face masks in public corresponds to the most effective means to prevent interhuman transmission."

U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams reminded Americans to continue to wearing masks, saying "some feel face coverings infringe on their freedom of choice -- but if more wear them, we'll have more freedom to go out." His message on Twitter came as confirmed cases were on the rise in some reopened states.

COVID-19 cases in the U.S. eclipsed 2.1 million as of mid-June, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. More than 117,000 have succumbed to COVID-19 in the U.S., which has suffered the highest coronavirus death toll in the world.

"Over the next 90 days, temperatures are expected to be running above average across the Northeast and from the interior Northwest through the Four Corners region and portions of the southern Plains," AccuWeather Meteorologist Danielle Knittle said.

Knittle said the Southeast through eastern Texas will be the area of the U.S. with the highest heat and humidity combined. In contrast, the northern Rockies into California will be hot but dry, with lower humidity.

The areas with high humidity could face more challenges than others when it comes to mask care and wearing them outdoors. The heat and humidity make it more difficult for some people to breathe while wearing a mask, the combination of weather factors could also lead to other health concerns.

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But remember, if there's freedom in the face mask, like the surgeon general says, keep a few things in mind, and the whole experience will be a lot more bearable.

One notion to dispense with is that wearing a mask presents other dangers. Even though a mask may be uncomfortable, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said wearing one properly will not put someone at risk of carbon dioxide intoxication or oxygen deficiency.

Next, fabric matters.

Cotton is a more breathable option than other fabrics, but it can also absorb sweat, which could cause issues on hot and humid days. To work around this issue, it's a good idea to pack multiple masks for long outings -- especially on hot days. Bringing extra masks in a plastic baggy will keep them clean and dry, so you will have a fresh mask free from sweat when it's time to switch.

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The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends tightly woven cotton for face masks to be made of such as quilting fabric or cotton sheets. However, a T-shirt made of cotton can also be used to make a protective face covering. Polyester and other synthetic fabric blends are harder to breathe through, which can cause the inside of the masks to heat up quickly, which will be uncomfortable when out in the hot sun.

Experts recommend wearing face coverings any time one could be exposed to SARS-CoV-2, the contagion that causes COVID-19. However, there are some outdoor activities that allow for more leeway around face coverings, as one expert pointed out.

Bryan Lewis, a research associate professor for the Biocomplexity Institute and Initiative in the University of Virginia, told AccuWeather's Bill Wadell that if people are in a setting where they could be exposing themselves to the virus, they should continue to wear a mask. For someone going on a jog alone outside, however, a mask may not needed as much, he said.

"As uncomfortable as it may be, I think if you're in a setting where you are getting a lot of exposure, it would be in your best interest to continue to wear a mask," Lewis said.

While cotton is a popular choice, it is not a perfect solution.

According to the CDC, N95 masks, which officials have urged people to reserve for medical professionals, filter out 95% of airborne particles, compared to one layer of cotton, which blocks about 40% of droplets. Scientists at the University of Illinois who tested different materials used to make masks found that by adding a second layer of T-shirt cotton, droplet blocking is much higher at 98%. For those planning to be active outdoors, cotton can absorb sweat, but there are other fabrics that are more absorbent.

A good alternative to cotton comes from a material that many may think of mainly as a wood. For people who will be wearing a mask while in extreme heat or while engaging in physical activity, a face covering made of bamboo fabric may be a smart choice.

Bamboo is 40% more absorbent than even the best organic cotton fabrics, according to The Miami Herald. Fabric made from bamboo can absorb up to three times its weight in liquid, meaning it will be ideal for situations where someone is sweating. Bamboo is also celebrated for its antibacterial properties, so it's less likely to develop an odor as well.

To avoid overheating in the hot sun, lighter colored masks are also a better fit. This is because ultraviolet rays from the sun are easily absorbed by materials made using darker colors, which will cause them to heat up faster.

It is also important to be able to recognize when a problem with breathing emerges. Dr. Richard Wenzel, a professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, told CNN that it is OK to briefly remove a mask if it is causing someone to struggle with breathing. Wenzel said that if you're going to remove a mask in a public setting, make sure to be at least 6 feet apart from others.

Besides blocking the particles in the air, Lewis, from the University of Virginia, said there is more value to wearing a mask, such as trapping moisture, avoiding touching mucus membranes, and the mask serving as a visual reminder for people to be cautious about doing seemingly ordinary things like shaking hands.

"What we are really in is a stage of trying to maintain and control. We all sacrificed a lot to get this outbreak under control. And now we all have a few different levers that we all need to sort of do at once to sort of maintain this control," Lewis said.

And what you do after wearing a mask is almost as important as wearing one.

According to CDC guidelines, cloth masks should be washed daily, and allowed time to dry fully before reuse. The CDC recommends that people thoroughly wash their hands or use sanitizer before putting on a mask and making sure face coverings fit snug to the face while still not restricting one's ability to breathe.

The best way to prevent germs from lingering between uses is to wash the mask after each use in hot water and dry on a high heat. If needed, masks can also be ironed as an additional way to kill germs.

And the hot, humid summer weather provides an atmosphere in which some types of germs can thrive. "That's usually a good combination [heat and humidity] for microbes to survive, so more frequent washing of masks or face coverings would likely need to be required," Knittle said.

No matter the mask, meteorologists say it is best to also avoid extended periods of time spent outside in order to avoid overheating. For those who must spend great amounts of time outdoors, these experts suggest taking frequent breaks in the shade. Spending time outdoors during the morning and evening hours and avoiding the hottest hours of the midday is recommended whenever possible. Staying hydrated and wearing light, loose-fitting clothing is critical to avoiding potential risks of heat exhaustion, or even heatstroke in extreme cases.

African Americans, men and younger adults have less knowledge about COVID-19 and the risks posed by the new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, according to the results of a survey published Thursday by JAMA Network Open.

Although roughly 80 percent of the respondents said they know the symptoms of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, and how it's spread, African Americans and Latinx adults were up to 10 percent less likely to have accurate information in these areas than their white peers, the survey found.

Similarly, men were at least 5 percent less likely to have knowledge of disease symptoms and spread than women, researchers said.

African Americans and men are at greater risk for COVID-19 in general, and for serious illness from the virus specifically, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"Overall, the public is fairly aware of the basic facts about how COVID-19 spreads and how to protect themselves, but there are clearly some important gaps ... between African American, Latinx and white respondents," co-author Marcella Alsan, a professor of public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, told UPI.

In the case of Latinx respondents, language barriers "could indeed be part of it but [in general] trust between the messenger [providing the information] and the intended recipient seems important," she said.

The sources for information on COVID-19 likely play a role in levels of pandemic knowledge and appear to differ along racial lines, according to Alsan.

Among those who relied on public health organizations and officials for information and guidance on the coronavirus, 63 percent were white, 10 percent were African American and 18 percent were Hispanic, according to a Pew Research survey published May 20.

African Americans account for 13 percent of the total U.S. population, according to figures from the 2010 census.

For their survey, Alsan and her colleagues interviewed 5,200 American adults between March 29 and April 13, the height of the outbreak in some parts of the United States.

African-American respondents were nearly 4 percent more likely to report being infected with the new coronavirus and 7 percent more likely to know someone who had tested positive for COVID-19 than white respondents, the researchers found.

Among other findings, 87 percent of respondents correctly identified all three primary symptoms of COVID-19 -- fever, cough and difficulty breathing -- while 86 percent knew that the disease was spread via respiratory droplets.

Ninety-four percent said they were aware that those with no obvious symptoms could still pass the virus to others.

However, African-American and Latinx respondents were significantly less likely to report knowing these facts about COVID-19, they found. This mirrors a survey conducted by researchers at Yale University in March.

That survey found that 84 percent of black respondents and 89 percent of Hispanic/Latino respondents were aware of asymptomatic spread, compared to 94 percent of white respondents.

Fewer black and Hispanic or Latino respondents to the Yale survey also were able to correctly identify the symptoms of COVID-19.

For the United States to successfully control the spread of COVID-19, communities most at risk from the disease need to have access to "trusted guidance on how to protect themselves," Alsan and her colleagues said.

In addition to being less well informed, African Americans, men and younger adults were also more likely to leave their homes than those in other demographic groups, they said.

Earlier research has suggested that African Americans and men make up higher percentages of "essential workers," meaning many of them have to venture out, even during lockdowns.

"[It's] important to ensure that messages on how to protect oneself are combined with resources so that disadvantaged individuals have the tools they need to take the steps necessary to protect themselves and their communities," Alsan said.

The numbers: Nearly 10 million people lost their jobs in April after a record 14.6 million were thrown out of work in March, a government report shows, underscoring the widespread devastation to the U.S. labor market from the coronavirus.

The unprecedented back-to-back increases in people losing their jobs in March and April reflects the cumulative damage of a nationwide economic shutdown as the U.S. tried to stop the spread of COVID-19.

The labor market began to recover in May and layoffs are dwindling, but so far it’s been slow going. More than 20 million Americans are receiving jobless benefits and it may be awhile before most return to work.

Job openings also fell to 5 million in April from 6 million in the prior month, according to a Labor Department report that’s released with a one-month delay.

Yet even that figure overstates how many companies are willing to add workers. The number of people hired in April fell to the lowest level on record at 3.5 million. The government began keeping track in 2000.

Before the pandemic, job openings were running well above 7 million and had hit a record high.

What happened: Hotels and restaurants cut 1.75 million jobs in April as they coped with stay-at-home orders that kept customers away. In March and April, some 6.5 million people lost their jobs in those two industries alone.

Retailers also took another heavy hit. They let go or furloughed 1.2 million workers after jettisoning 1.7 million employees in April.

Job losses were also heavy in health care and professional and business services.

Job openings fell in most segments of the economy.

The share of people who left jobs on their own, known as the quits rate, sank to 1.5% among private-sector employees. That’s less than half a recent peak of 3.2% less than one year ago.

Few people were willing quit a secure or semi-secure job in the midst of a once-in-a-century pandemic.

Read:U.S. regains 2.5 million jobs in May, unemployment falls to 13.3%

The big picture: The coronavirus turned a extremely tight labor market virtually overnight into a jobs wasteland. More than 20 million people were laid off or furloughed at least temporarily and it’s still unclear how many will be able to return to their old jobs.

How quickly consumers go back to their old ways, businesses starting turning profits again, and the labor market revives will determine whether the economy springs back to life quickly or endures a long recovery. Most economists predict a return to normal could take several years.

Read:U.S. entered recession in February after end of longest expansion in history

What they are saying? “We may continue to see elevated rates of layoffs and job cuts continue to spread to other sectors, but the tidal wave of layoffs appears to be behind us,” said Nick Bunker, director of research at Indeed Hiring Lab.

Market reaction: The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.61% and S&P 500 SPX, +0.83% fell in Tuesday trades, interrupting a recent string of increases that have recouped most of the losses early in the pandemic.

The recent protests against police brutality in dozens of cities across the country have heightened fears that a second wave of novel coronavirus infections could soon follow.

Thousands of protesters, many without protective masks, have gathered and marched in close proximity to each other. SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the COVID-19 disease, is chiefly transmitted via respiratory droplets that are spread when people talk, cough or sneeze.

“Crowded protests, like any large gathering of people in a close space, can help facilitate the spread of COVID-19, which is why it’s so important participants wear masks, eye protection and bring hand gel,” Saskia Popescu, an infectious-disease epidemiologist at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government, wrote in an email to The Washington Post.

In the U.S., more than 100,000 people have already died from the coronavirus, and it has been well documented that people of color have been particularly hit hard.

These protests have occurred as many states were in the process of slowly reopening businesses and public spaces after weeks of stay-at-home directives.

This past weekend, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti warned that the protests could become “super-spreader events.” In Atlanta, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, advised protesters “to go get a Covid test this week.”

Some medical experts were glad to see that the protests were being held outdoors, where the virus could have a tougher time transmitting between individuals.

“The outdoor air dilutes the virus and reduces the infectious dose that might be out there, and if there are breezes blowing, that further dilutes the virus in the air,” Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University, told The New York Times.  

“There was literally a lot of running around, which means they’re exhaling more profoundly, but also passing each other very quickly.”

Other medical experts, though, were more concerned about the risk of further spread.

“Yes, the protests are outside, but they are all really close to each other, and in those cases, being outside doesn’t protect you nearly as much,” Dr. Howard Markel, a medical historian who studies pandemics, told The New York Times.

“Public gatherings are public gatherings—it doesn’t matter what you’re protesting or cheering. That’s one reason we’re not having large baseball games and may not have college football this fall.”

It appears that the vast majority of the protesting crowds are young people, who have shown to have the lowest mortality rates among those infected by COVID-19. However, there is still a risk that they could transmit the virus to older household and family members.

Cases of the coronavirus in prisons and jails across the United States have soared in recent weeks, even as the overall daily infection rate in the nation has remained relatively flat.

The number of prison inmates known to be infected has doubled during the past month to more than 65,000. Prison deaths tied to the coronavirus have also risen, by 73 percent since mid-May. By now, the five largest known clusters of the virus in the United States are not at nursing homes or meatpacking plants, but inside correction institutions, according to data The New York Times has been collecting about confirmed coronavirus cases since the pandemic reached American shores.

And the risk of more cases appears imminent: The swift growth in virus cases behind bars comes as demonstrators arrested as part of large police brutality protests across the nation have often been placed in crowded holding cells in local jails.

A muddled, uneven response by corrections officials to testing and care for inmates and workers is complicating the spread of the coronavirus. In interviews, prison and jail officials acknowledged that their approach has largely been based on trial and error, and that an effective, consistent response for U.S. correctional facilities remains elusive.

“If there was clearly a right strategy, we all would have done it,” said Dr. Owen Murray, a University of Texas Medical Branch physician who oversees correctional health care at dozens of Texas prisons. “There is no clear-cut right strategy here. There are a lot of different choices that one could make that are going to be in-the-moment decisions.”

The inconsistent response to the spread of the coronavirus in correctional facilities is in contrast with efforts to halt its spread in other known incubators of the virus: Much of the cruise ship industry has been closed down. Staff members and residents of nursing homes in several states now face compulsory testing. Many meat processing plants have been shuttered for extensive cleaning.

As the toll in prisons has increased, so has fear among inmates who say the authorities have done too little to protect them. There have been riots and hunger strikes in correctional facilities from Washington State to New York. And even the known case numbers are likely a significant undercount because testing has been extremely limited inside prisons and because some places that test do not release the results to the public.

“It’s like a sword hanging over my head,” said Fred Roehler, 77, an inmate at a California prison who has chronic inflammatory lung disease and other respiratory ailments. “Any officer can bring it in.”

Public officials have long warned that the nation’s correctional facilities would likely become vectors in the pandemic because they are often overcrowded, unsanitary places where social distancing is impractical, bathrooms and day rooms are shared by hundreds of inmates, and access to cleaning supplies is tightly controlled. Many inmates are 60 or older, and many suffer from respiratory illnesses or heart conditions.

In response, local jails have discharged thousands of inmates since February, many of whom had been awaiting trials to have charges heard or serving time for nonviolent crimes. State prison systems, where people convicted of more serious crimes are housed, have been more reluctant to release inmates.

Testing for the virus within the nation’s penal institutions varies widely, and has become a matter of significant debate.

Republican-led states like Texas, Tennessee and Arkansas — which generally spend less on prisoners than the national average — have found themselves at the forefront of testing inmates.

In Texas, the number of prisoners and staff members known to be infected has more than quadrupled to 7,600 during the past three weeks after the state began to test every inmate.

Yet states that typically spend far more on prisons have carried out significantly less testing.

California, which spends $12 billion annually on its prison system, has tested fewer than 4 percent of inmates in several of its largest, most crowded facilities, according to the state’s data. Other Democratic-led states that also spend heavily on prisons, including New York, Oregon and Colorado, have also conducted limited testing despite large outbreaks in their facilities.

New York has tested about 3 percent of its 40,000 prison inmates; more than 40 percent of those tested were infected.

Critics say that the dearth of testing in some facilities has meant that prison and public health officials have only vague notions about the spread of the virus, which has allowed some elected officials to suggest that it is not present at all.

“We have really no true idea of how bad the problem is because most places are not yet testing the way they should,” said Dr. Homer Venters, who served as chief medical officer for the New York City jail system and now works for a group called Community Oriented Correctional Health Services, which works to improve health care services in local jails. “I think a lot of times some of the operational challenges of either not having adequate quarantine policies or adequate medical isolation policies are so vexing that places simply decide that they can just throw up their hands.”

Most state prison systems have conducted few tests. Systems in Illinois, Mississippi and Alabama have tested fewer than 2.5 percent of inmates. And in Louisiana, officials had tested several dozen of its 31,000 inmates in March when the warden and medical director at one of the state’s largest prisons died of the coronavirus. The state has since announced plans to test every inmate.

Prison officials in states where only a limited number of inmates have been tested say they are following federal guidelines. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that only prisoners with symptoms be tested.

Prisons that have conducted mass testing have found that about one in seven tests of inmates have come back positive, the Times database shows. The vast majority of inmates who have tested positive have been asymptomatic.

Public health officials say that indicates the virus has been present in prison populations for far longer than had previously been understood.

“If you don’t do testing, you’re flying blind,” said Carlos Franco-Paredes, an infectious-disease specialist at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

But in California, there continues to be reluctance to test each of the state’s 114,000 inmates, despite growing criticism to take a more aggressive approach. One in six inmates in the state’s prisons have been tested, and the state has released some inmates who were later found to have the virus, raising fears that prison systems could seed new infections outside penal institutions.

“Nothing significant had been done to protect those most vulnerable to the virus,” said Marie Waldron, the Republican minority leader of the California State Assembly.

But J. Clark Kelso, who oversees prison health care in California, said that mass testing would provide only a snapshot of the virus’s spread.

“Testing’s not a complete solution,” Mr. Kelso said. “It gives you better information, but you don’t want to get a false sense of security.”