Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
COVID-19 Outbreak At Kansas Nursing Home Claims 10 Residents' Lives
AP: 10 Residents Dead Amid Virus Outbreak At Kansas Nursing Home
A coronavirus outbreak has killed 10 residents in a nursing home in a northwestern Kansas county that proportionally already had the nation’s largest increase in cases over two weeks. The health department in Norton County reported Monday night that all 62 residents and an unspecified number of employees at the Andbe Home in Norton had tested positive for the novel coronavirus. The agency also said one Andbe Home resident was hospitalized, while the remaining 51 were being treated at the home. (Hanna, 10/20)
AP: Virus Outbreak Linked To Hockey Rink Grows To 30 Cases
The outbreak of people infected with the virus that causes COVID-19 traced to a Montpelier hockey rink has expanded to 30, the Vermont Health Department said Monday. The cases are linked to adult and youth hockey leagues and an adult broomball league at the Central Vermont Memorial Civic Center. (10/19)
The New York Times: Virus Cases Spike In New Jersey, Threatening ‘Lurch Backward’
Coronavirus cases in New Jersey, an early epicenter of the pandemic, are on the rise again, doubling over the last month to an average of more than 900 new positive tests a day, a worrisome reversal of fortune for a state that had driven transmission rates to some of the nation’s lowest levels. After an outbreak several weeks ago in a heavily Orthodox Jewish town near the Jersey Shore, cases are now rising in counties across the state, driven, officials say, by indoor gatherings. (Tully and Gold, 10/19)
AP: Oregon Mask Requirements Expanded As COVID Cases Rise
As the total number of COVID-19 cases in Oregon nears 40,000 people, health officials announced Monday that face-covering requirements are once again being expanded to include all private and public work spaces, outdoor markets and colleges. The Oregon Health Authority reported 266 new and presumptive COVID-19 cases Monday and eight deaths. The numbers bring the state’s case tally to 39,794. The death toll is 627. (Cline, 10/19)
In other news from the states —
The New York Times: Michigan Woman Found Alive At Funeral Home Dies 8 Weeks Later
A young Michigan woman who was pronounced dead in August, only to be found alive at a funeral home hours later, has died, her family’s lawyer said. The woman, Timesha Beauchamp, 20, died on Sunday at the Children’s Hospital of Michigan in Detroit after about eight weeks in a coma, said Geoffrey Fieger, the lawyer. (de Leon, 10/19)
ABC News: Some NYC Students Randomly Tested For COVID-19 Without Parents' Consent
A number of students in one New York City borough have been randomly tested for COVID-19 despite the schools not receiving consent from their parents to do so. The New York City Department of Education has only received about 72,000 -- or 20% -- of the consent forms that were sent out for children returning to the classroom at the beginning of the school year, ABC New York station WABC reported. (Jacobo, 10/19)
