Wisconsin Sets Up Field Hospital As Cases Strain Hospitals

The Hill: Wisconsin Activates Field Hospital Amid COVID-19 Surge 
Wisconsin health officials will activate a field hospital located at the state's fairgrounds in order to help relieve the strain on medical facilities overwhelmed by a massive influx of COVID-19 patients. Gov. Tony Evers (D) on Wednesday said the 530-bed facility at Wisconsin State Fair Park near Milwaukee will begin accepting coronavirus patients within the next week. (Weixel, 10/7)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: 'Dangerous': Wisconsin Reports 2,300 Cases, 16 Deaths Wednesday
Wisconsin's coronavirus crisis is dire and is going to get worse before it improves, state health officials said Wednesday. The warnings were paired with the announcement of an alternate care facility set to open next week at State Fair Park in West Allis, intended to help free up beds at hospitals inundated with coronavirus patients."Our state is in a dangerous place," state Health Services Secretary-designee Andrea Palm said. "We are overwhelming our health care system." (Carson, 10/7)

In news from the West —

The New York Times: Nursing Homes In Nevada Told To Stop Using Rapid Coronavirus Tests 
The coronavirus tests kits are small and fast — they produce results in as a little as 15 minutes — and when they were first distributed to nursing homes around the country in August by the federal government, they were welcomed with open arms. ... But now Nevada has ordered its nursing facilities to immediately suspend the use of two of the rapid virus tests after their performance was found to be lacking, according to a directive issued by the state’s department of health. (10/8)

AP: COVID-19 Outbreak Kills 9 At California Nursing Facility
A coronavirus outbreak at a skilled nursing facility on California’s central coast has killed nine people and infected more than 60 residents and staff, health officials said Wednesday. The outbreak at the Watsonville Post Acute Center in Santa Cruz County comes as the rates of new COVID-19 cases fall in that county and in California as a whole. (10/8)

AP: California Evangelical School Tells Students To Quarantine
An evangelical college in Northern California said Wednesday it has asked its entire 1,600-student body to self-quarantine as the number of coronavirus cases among students and staff rose to 137 since classes started a month ago. In a statement, the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry in Redding, California, said off-campus housing has been a primary source of transmission, along with “social interactions outside of school hours.” (Gecker, 10/7)

Politico: California School Districts Spurn 'Back-Patting' Trump Food Box Letter
The superintendent of the nation’s second largest school district on Wednesday accused President Donald Trump's administration of possibly violating the Hatch Act by inserting a letter in food boxes for distribution at schools and pantries just weeks before Election Day. Los Angeles Unified Superintendent Austin Beutner said that the district, which enrolls more than 600,000 students, will not include a “back-patting” letter from Trump inside of food boxes that are part of the Agriculture Department’s Farmers to Families Program. The program redirects meat, dairy and produce to low-income families instead of the restaurants and other food-service businesses that normally receive them. (Mays, 10/7)

In news from the Northeast —

CBS News: Protesters Burn Masks In Brooklyn Coronavirus Hotspot Over Cuomo's Crackdown On Religious Gatherings 
Hundreds of members of the Orthodox Jewish community in several Brooklyn neighborhoods took to the streets overnight on Tuesday to protest New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's new coronavirus restrictions. At a large protest in Borough Park, a crowd started a fire in the street after midnight, burning masks and chanting, "Jewish lives matter." (Lewis, 10/7)

Newsweek: New Hampshire Church Linked To COVID Outbreak After 10 Day Prayer Session
Health officials in New Hampshire are investigating a potential coronavirus outbreak linked to a church, after over half a dozen people tested positive for the virus. Seven people who went to events hosted by Gate City Church in the southern New Hampshire city of Nashua, Hillsborough county, tested positive for the coronavirus, ABC affiliate WMUR9 reported on Wednesday citing the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). (Gander, 10/8)

CNN: Vermont Battling Covid-19 At An Apple Orchard Among Migrant Workers
Vermont is battling a Covid-19 outbreak among migrant workers at an apple orchard, state officials announced Monday. Champlain Orchards in Addison County had 27 workers test positive over the weekend, Vermont Health Commissioner Dr. Mark Levine said on Tuesday. The commissioner had previously announced 26 cases, with one more test result being reported after the initial announcement. (Sturia and Kim, 10/6)

KQED: ICE Misusing Solitary Confinement For COVID-19 Quarantine, Detainees Say
As COVID-19 sickened dozens of people at a for-profit immigration detention center in Bakersfield this summer, staffers put Edmondson in isolation for weeks, including placing him in a cell used for disciplinary segregation that detainees call “the hole,” court records show. ICE officials said Edmondson, who repeatedly tested negative for the coronavirus, was being quarantined and housed apart from other detainees for his own protection. (Romero, 10/6)

In news from the South and Mid-Atlantic —

The Washington Post: Firings Of Therapists Who Alleged Wrongdoing Left Abused Children Without Treatment
A nonprofit group that is paid nearly $1 million a year by Montgomery County to provide counseling and medical care to abused children has been accused of inflating the number of patients it serves and failing to protect their personal information. Three psychologists and a social worker who raised concerns about the Rockville-based Tree House organization say they were abruptly fired soon afterward, leaving dozens of vulnerable children without the therapists they had grown to trust. (Chason and Tan, 10/7)

North Carolina Health News: Second Prison COVID Wave Delays Visits 
A week before visitations were slated to reopen at Greene Correctional Institution, a state prison in eastern North Carolina, officials announced Julia’s worst fear: The novel coronavirus had struck the facility — again. “I’m broken-hearted,” said Julia, whose boyfriend is incarcerated inside and requested North Carolina Health News use a pseudonym out of fear of retaliation by the prison system, on Sept. 30. “We haven’t seen each other in eight months.” (Critchfield, 10/8)

AP: West Virginia City Declares Racism A Public Health Crisis
Officials in a northern West Virginia city have unanimously approved a resolution declaring racism a health crisis. Social justice movements across the nation helped spark Tuesday’s vote by the Wheeling City Council, which appears to be among the first in the state, news outlets reported. (10/7)

Georgia Health News: National Poll Highlights Perils Of COVID-19 In Rural Georgia
Many rural households are struggling with access to health care and financial problems during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a national poll released Wednesday. The poll of more than 500 adults living in rural areas found that one in four of these families said they had a member unable to get medical care for a serious problem during the pandemic. And most families with these access-to-care problems reported negative health effects as a result. (Miller, 10/7)