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Key Points
October 26, 2020
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In Today’s Recommendation for Industry, we discuss the most recent (as of Friday) record of reported U.S. COVID-19 cases and what that might mean.
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Global cases of COVID-19 have exceeded 43 million (up 2 million since this past Friday).
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How can assurance testing of asymptomatic workers verify your COVID-19 Protection? Join our upcoming webinar with Dr. Ben Miller this Wednesday October 28, 2020.
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CIDRAP has summarized two recent studies on convalescent plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients. From the two studies, there has been no benefit by using convalescent plasma; in fact, there may be a risk leading to blood clots.
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The FDA has approved its first U.S. treatment for COVID-19, the antiviral drug Veklury (also known as remdesivir) to be used in adults and pediatric patients over 12 years of age “for the treatment of COVID-19 requiring hospitalization”. At this time, the WHO does not believe remdesivir is an effective treatment.
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A large U.S. and Canada study looking at 339 asymptomatic and 478 symptomatic children from March to July has found that lower COVID-19 viral loads are found in asymptomatic children. However, asymptomatic children with diabetes who had recent close contact with a COVID-19 infected individual did have the highest viral load. Read the press release here.
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In Case You Missed It:
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On Friday, we revisit and clarify the CDC’s revised definition of “close contact.” Read more here.
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Last Wednesday, we reviewed a recent CDC study on the survival of SARS-CoV-2 and the influenza virus on human skin accentuating the need for hand hygiene. Read more here.
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A recent Nature article discusses the positives and negatives of using pooled testing, including optimal group size and sampling frequency.
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A recent study in Scientific American discusses “What We Know So Far about how COVID affects the Nervous System.”
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Recent CDC findings that 83.2% of all confirmed COVID-19 cases in the food and agriculture sector involved minorities or people of color, even though they make up only 47.4% of all workers in the U.S. This speaks to the importance of having responsive communications and workplace protections that are culturally relevant and understandable.
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OSHA is offering no-cost, confidential occupational safety and health services to small and medium-sized U.S. businesses. Consultants from state agencies or universities help identify workplace hazards, provide advice on OSHA compliance, and assist in establishing and improving safety and health programs. Find out more here.
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Are there any topics or questions that we have not covered yet or did not expand on, previously, regarding COVID-19? Do you have any questions that we haven’t answered yet about COVID-19 and its impact on your business? If so, leave us a message and let us know.
Recommendations for Industry
Single-Day Record Cases in U.S.
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On Friday October 23, 2020, the U.S. broke the single-day record of reported COVID-19 cases, with 85,000 reported cases. This is now 10,000 more cases than the previous daily record set on July 16, 2020. According to the New York Times, “By that measure, Friday was the worst day of the pandemic, and health experts warned of a further surge as cold weather sets in.”
That surge seems to be continuing, as the number of people hospitalized with Covid-19 has risen 40 percent in the past month with hospitals reaching their limits in some areas. We have not seen a rise in deaths at this point, which could be due to a better understanding of the virus, better medical care and findings, or simply, that it is a lagging indicator.
If the U.S. follows the trajectory of Europe, as we reported earlier this month, we are very likely to see the trends continue upward, and U.S. local and state governments having to, again, make decisions on re-imposing closures or other restrictions, such as the curfews in Spain and France, and Spain’s declaration of a state of emergency through May.
So, once again, TAG’s recommendation is to stay the course – or even increase it: requiring masks, distancing workers, mandating handwashing, increasing sanitation, look at modifications to air-handling systems, and communicating off-duty safety behavior to employees. The resurgence is real and is likely to get worse as the weather turns cold, influenza season starts, and “pandemic fatigue” increases.
Outbreak Updates
As of October 26, 2020 (11:36 ET), there are over > 43,174,000 cases (>1,155,000 deaths) worldwide.
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Due to the increasing number of cases in the United States, TAG will move from reporting counts per country to focus on the United States, please see here for the data. For further information regarding worldwide numbers, please refer to John Hopkin University’s aggregate map.
Keep up to date with COVID-19:
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