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CORONAVIRUS

Another COVID spike in Brown County

BROWN COUNTY — The COVID case counts in Brown County saw a dramatic spike in August, with over 180 labs confirmed cases and two deaths. Brown County Public Health reported that the most recent COVID-related deaths occurred in the last week. These two deaths were the first COVID deaths in Brown County since early May. The total number of cases is 10 times higher than the previous month. This is also the highest monthly COVID case rate since April. August 2021 has over three times as many COVID cases as of August 2020. COVID numbers were relatively low in Brown County for most of ...

Oxygen supplies grow precarious amid COVID surge

MISSION, Kan. (AP) — The COVID-19 surge is stretching oxygen supplies and sending hospitals scrambling for more ventilators, even as there are signs of hope that the spread of the virus is slowing down in pockets of the U.S. In Tulsa, Oklahoma, a hospital recently called 911 after coming within just a few hours of running out of oxygen because they needed an emergency transfer for a patient on high-flow oxygen. The hospital got a shipment later that day, but the experience was a warning to other hospitals, said Dr. Jeffrey Goodloe, the chief medical officer for the EMS system that ...

Hostile school board meetings have members calling it quits

A Nevada school board member said he had thoughts of suicide before stepping down amid threats and harassment. In Virginia, a board member resigned over what she saw as politics driving decisions on masks. The vitriol at board meetings in Wisconsin had one member fearing he would find his tires slashed. School board members are largely unpaid volunteers, traditionally former educators and parents who step forward to shape school policy, choose a superintendent and review the budget. But a growing number are resigning or questioning their willingness to serve as meetings have devolved ...

Virus surge breaks hospital records amid rising toll on kids

Kentucky and Texas joined a growing list of states that are seeing record numbers of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in a surge that is overwhelming doctors and nurses and afflicting more children. Intensive care units around the nation are packed with patients extremely ill with the coronavirus — even in places where hospitalizations have not yet reached earlier peaks. The ICU units at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital in Georgia typically have room for 38 patients, and doctors and nurses may have only two or three people who are very sick, said Dr. Jyotir Mehta, medical director of ...

Pandemic windfall for US schools has few strings attached

As the federal government releases historic sums of pandemic aid to the nation's schools, it's urging them to dream big and invest in seismic changes that will benefit students for generations to come. But many districts say they have more urgent problems to tackle first. In Detroit, that means fixing buildings with crumbling ceilings and mold infestations. Like other school systems, Detroit is caught between the Biden administration's lofty aspirations and bleak realities. The district is using some of the government money to hire tutors, expand mental health services and cut class ...

US outbreaks force early reversals on in-person learning

ATLANTA (AP) — A few weeks into the new school year, growing numbers of U.S. districts have halted in-person learning or switched to hybrid models because of rapidly mounting coronavirus infections. More than 80 school districts or charter networks have closed or delayed in-person classes for at least one entire school in more than a dozen states. Others have sent home whole grade levels or asked half their students to stay home on hybrid schedules. The setbacks in mostly small, rural districts that were among the first to return dampen hopes for a sustained, widespread return to ...