Prime tourist destinations become virus hot spots
The three sizable urban centers in the United States where the coronavirus is spreading fastest right now have something in common: They are major warm-weather tourist destinations.
Miami-Dade County, Fla.; Honolulu County, Hawaii; and San Juan, Puerto Rico, are all averaging at least 85 new cases a day per 100,000 residents, with test positivity rates above 20%, according to a New York Times database. By contrast, the nation as a whole is averaging 34 newly reported cases a day per 100,000 residents, with a positivity rate of 13%.
Some U.S. regions that were hit early by the latest surge, like the Northeast, have been showing signs of improvement lately. But Miami-Dade has gotten steadily worse since early April, with its daily newcase average rising more than tenfold, hospitalizations more than tripling and deaths ticking upward.
The CDC now considers it, along with much of Florida, to be a high-virus-level area where extra precautions are recommended, including wearing masks on public transportation and in indoor public spaces.
Dr. Mary Jo Trepka, who heads the epidemiology department at Florida International University, pointed to several factors that could be driving the surge, including flocks of spring break tourists, recent big events like the Miami Grand Prix race, and widening public apathy about the pandemic.
Mayor Rick Blangiardi of Honolulu County said his administration was not considering reinstating mask mandates or other restrictions but that it would “consider all possible solutions to any situation that warrants a response.”
The county, which includes the islands of Oahu, Molokai and Lanai, has experienced a significant surge akin to Miami-Dade’s since early April, but in Honolulu’s case, there are signs that it may have peaked.
In Puerto Rico, Gov. Pedro Pierluisi lifted nearly all pandemic restrictions in March, and new confirmed cases soon started rising. But tourism to the island has bounced back.
Kenira Thompson, vice president for research at Ponce Health Sciences University in Puerto Rico, said that older and immunocompromised people there should consider continuing to wear masks in crowded places and that those who are eligible for booster shots should seek them out.
Guilty plea in disinfectant case
A New Jersey man admitted he illegally sold unregistered pesticides as a COVID-19 defense to government entities including the U.S. Marshals Service and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Paul Andrecola pleaded guilty in federal court last week in Camden to one count each of wire fraud, selling an unregistered pesticide and presenting false claims.
According to a criminal complaint, Andrecola made and sold pesticides that weren’t registered with the EPA as required, and weren’t on the EPA’s list of products deemed to be effective disinfectants against COVID-19. Andrecola and others put another company’s EPA registration numbers on his products to hide the fact that they weren’t registered, according to the complaint.
Federal authorities alleged Andrecola made 150 sales of the unregistered pesticides between March 2020 and May 2021. Among the additional entities that bought the products were a Delaware police department, a Virginia fire department and a medical clinic in Georgia.
Andrecola is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 11. He also must forfeit $2.7 million in proceeds from the scheme.
Charles Nugent Jr., an attorney representing Andrecola, said his client has accepted responsibility.
“The product he sold was safe and effective for the purpose it was sold,” Nugent added. “There’s no evidence otherwise. No one was harmed by it.”
Cities ramp up testing frequency
Thousands of coronavirus testing sites have popped up across Beijing and other Chinese cities in the latest development in the country’s “zeroCOVID” strategy.
Lines form every day, rain or shine, even where the spread of the virus has largely stopped. Some people need to go to work. Others want to shop. All are effectively compelled to get tested by a requirement to show a negative test result to enter office buildings, malls and other public places.
Regular testing of residents is becoming the new normal in many parts of China as the ruling Communist Party sticks steadfastly to a “zero-COVID” approach that is increasingly at odds with the rest of the world.
Major cities have been told to set up testing stations within a 15-minute walk for all residents. Beijing and Shanghai alone have erected 10,000 or more each. Some are made up of folding tables and chairs under a temporary canopy. Others are enclosed square booths from which gloved workers reach out through openings to take a quick throat swab from the next person in line.
Many cities including Beijing are requiring a negative test result within the past three days to enter a public place or take the bus or subway. Some have made it a week or 10 days. The tests are free, with the result reflected on the person’s smartphone health app roughly 12 hours later.
The move follows a recent outbreak in Shanghai that spread so widely that authorities locked down the entire city for two months to end it, trapping millions of people and dealing a blow to the national economy.
Guo Yanhong, an official with the National Health Commission, said testing has become more important because the omicron variant is both more contagious and is spread by people without symptoms.