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Latest coronavirus news for September 18, 2020: Live updates

On Friday, indoor service is back on the menu at bars and restaurants across Chicago’s far south suburbs after an improved COVID-19 testing positivity rate prompted Gov. J.B. Pritzker to lift restrictions on Will and Kankakee counties.

Here’s what happened in the fight against the coronavirus in Chicago, the state and the nation.

News

8:45 p.m. Homecoming in the COVID era: No football or dance, but event still puts ‘smiles on … faces’

Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times

Fall school festivities might look different than ever before this year, but that doesn’t mean they can’t still be fun.

Dozens of students and parents showed up Friday afternoon to Leo High School in Auburn Gresham for a twist on the usual homecoming celebration.

There was no football game or dance. Instead, teachers and staff at the private all-boys Catholic school handed out hot dog lunches, school supplies, T-shirts and backpacks, while parents picked up

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Dentist
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Colorado Fitness Coalition formed as gyms struggle due to coronavirus

Planet Fitness and more than two dozen other fitness industry companies have formed a new advocacy group called the Colorado Fitness Coalition. They have pledged to follow all state and local health guidelines in their facilities, including the governor’s mask mandate. (Provided by Planet Fitness)

As the fitness industry struggles to regain members following its 12-week pandemic shutdown, Colorado gym operators have formed a new advocacy group to represent their interests in discussions with public health authorities, share best-practices information with each other, and show members it’s safe to return.

The goal of the Colorado Fitness Coalition is to “keep our community fit, our members safe and our businesses open,” according to its website.

It’s been a challenging, scary summer for gyms and fitness studios because members have been slow to return since the state allowed them to reopen on June 4.

“It’s a very tough time in the industry,”

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Fitness
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Depression in British adults may have doubled during coronavirus pandemic

Some 19.2% of British adults likely had some form of depression in June, up from 9.7% before the pandemic, said the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) in a report. Conversely, 3.5% of adults experienced an improvement in their symptoms of depression.

“Adults who were young, female, unable to afford an unexpected expense or disabled were the most likely to experience some form of depression during the pandemic,” said Tim Vizard, principal research officer at the ONS.

A large majority (84.9%) of adults experiencing some form of depression said they had been feeling stressed and anxious, and 42.2% said their relationships were being affected. In comparison, 20.7% of adults with no sign of depression said Covid-19 was impacting their relationships.

The results are based on a nationally representative survey of adults in Britain, the Opinions and Lifestyle Survey, which asks a series of questions in order to produce a score

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Medicine
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Health care services that cover HIV in the South disrupted by coronavirus pandemic

The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted health care services in America, especially in the South, where HIV continues to plague the region.

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The South accounted for more than half of the country’s roughly 37,000 HIV infections in 2018 and has been a focus of the Trump administration’s goal of eradicating the disease by 2030 by focusing on hot spots for the infection and getting people on drugs.

Fewer people in the South are aware that they have HIV compared with other regions in the U.S., according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Parts of the so-called Black Belt — a poor agricultural region stretching from Louisiana to Virginia that was first known for the color of its soil and then for its mostly Black population — have particularly high rates of new HIV infections.

Health services have stopped or limited testing for

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Health
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Coronavirus vaccine: Health officials worry nation not ready for COVID-19 vaccine

Millions of Americans are counting on a COVID-19 vaccine to curb the global pandemic and return life to normal.

While one or more options could be available toward the end of this year or early next, the path to delivering vaccines to 330 million people remains unclear for the local health officials expected to carry out the work.

“We haven’t gotten a lot of information about how this is going to roll out,” said Dr. Umair Shah, executive director of Texas’ Harris County Public Health department, which includes Houston.

In a four-page memo this summer, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told health departments across the country to draft vaccination plans by Oct. 1 “to coincide with the earliest possible release of COVID-19 vaccine.”

But health departments that have been underfunded for decades say they currently lack the staff, money and tools to educate people about vaccines and

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Dentist
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Widely-used and cheap steroid hydrocortisone can cut coronavirus deaths by a THIRD

The cheap steroid hydrocortisone can cut Covid-19 deaths by almost a third in the sickest patients, research has found. 

An analysis co-ordinated by the World Health Organisation (WHO) of seven different studies found three steroids – hydrocortisone, methylprednisolone and dexamethasone – reduce the risk of death in critically ill coronavirus patients by 20 per cent.

It bumped up to 31 per cent for hydrocortisone, a drug widely used to treat allergic disorders, skin conditions, ulcerative colitis, arthritis, lupus, multiple sclerosis, or lung problems.

The study, from the University of Bristol, is one of three published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), that suggests steroids improve survival of the most seriously ill Covid-19 patients. 

Another found hydrocortisone can improve outcomes by up to 93 per cent in critically ill patients – measured by either a greater chance or survival or a reduced need for organ support in

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Medicine
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Latest Coronavirus News in Vietnam & Southeast Asia August 11

COVID-19: Vietnam registers 16 more cases, 16th fatality

Vietnam has recorded 16 new cases of community transmission, all closely linked to the current Da Nang coronavirus outbreak, and another COVID-19 death during the past 12 hours.

Ten cases have been confirmed in Da Nang city, the epicenter of the outbreak, four in Quang Nam and two in Quang Tri, the Ministry of Health said in its August 11 update at 18.00hrs. 

Most of the new cases had close contact with and took care of COVID-19 patients in medical facilities.

Meanwhile, a 37-year-old patient, a resident of Quang Tri, died of severe pneumonia and COVID-19. He also suffered from diabetes (Type I) and heart failure, according to the Ministry of Health.

He tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus on August 9 after being admitted to the Quang Tri Tuberculosis and Lung Hospital for sampling.

He was receiving treatment of his illness

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Medicine
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How to Talk to Your Kids About Coronavirus

“Will I have a birthday this year?” My 10-year-old daughter’s question startled me. “Of course you will. Birthdays happen every year, no matter what,” I answered. “Well I know I’ll turn 11 but I meant, will I get to do anything fun this year? With my friends? Or will it be another Zoom party?”



a man sitting in a room

© Jose Luis Pelaez/Getty Images


Ah. The coronavirus killjoy strikes again. Over the past few months, my daughter has watched her brothers celebrate birthdays, one brother’s graduation, a friend’s funeral, and a relative’s baby shower—all online, for social distancing purposes. It was no wonder she was already thinking about her fall birthday and wondering what would happen.

“I’m not sure, we’ll have to wait and see what the virus is doing in the fall,” I finally said.

She burst into tears. She’s not a child that cries easily, but this time a torrent of heartbreak flooded

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Dentist
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Three more cases in Greater Glasgow coronavirus cluster

Three more people have tested positive for coronavirus as part of a cluster of cases in the Greater Glasgow area.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) said all of the individuals are known contacts of earlier cases and are self-isolating.

The total number of positive cases now stands at 11.

An Amazon warehouse in Gourock and M&D Green pharmacy in Port Glasgow had previously been revealed as linked to the cluster.

NHSGGC has now said individuals, who may have been infectious at the time, visited a number of businesses in the Greater Glasgow area.

These included The Botany bar and restaurant in Glasgow and a boat trip with Sweeney’s Cruises in

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Medicine
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Tri-Valley School Donations May Be Curtailed By Coronavirus

TRI-VALLEY, CA — Only one thing is certain about the Tri-Valley’s upcoming school year, and that’s uncertainty.

With the coronavirus being far from under control, school officials have been debating when, or if, classrooms will reopen in the fall and, more importantly, how California’s economic crisis will ultimately impact the bottom line on budgets already stretched to the limit and largely dependent on revenue from the state.

Also impacted will be the flow of what has been millions of dollars donated by an extensive network of Tri-Valley nonprofit organizations, money used to supplement the increasing costs of educational activities.

During the 2016, 2017 and 2018 school years alone, nearly 80 individual tax-exempt nonprofit organizations provided some $40 million to the region’s four school districts — San Ramon Valley Unified, Dublin Unified, Pleasanton Unified and Livermore Valley Unified.

Chief among these benefactors is the San Ramon Valley Education Fund (SRVEF) based

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