Coronavirus Technology Solutions
November 6, 2020

COVID Cases Soar in the U.S. and Around the World

High Covid and Air Pollution in New Delhi

Other Asian Countries are Coping with the Virus in Different Ways

Reusable Masks with Eco-Sustainable Material Components has Appeal to Mask Purchasers

Mask Inactivates Escaping Virus

New Hampshire Firms have Benefited from COVID Contracts Awarded Through the U.S. Defense Department

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COVID Cases Soar in the U.S. and Around the World

The US recorded over 120,000 new coronavirus cases in a single day for the first time, with 20 states hitting record infections so far this month.

As cases rise exponentially across Europe, France and Spanish capital Madrid have tightened restrictions, as England and parts of Italy adjust to new lockdowns.

Asia, Malaysia and Japan also report spikes in new infections, as China suspends visitors from nine countries after a rise in imported Covid-19 cases.

Poland has witnessed its deadliest day since the coronavirus pandemic began, with a further 445 deaths reported by its health ministry on Friday.

The country also reported 27,086 new Covid-19 cases - only 57 fewer than Thursday’s record-high. The total number of confirmed infections in Poland stands at 493,765 and the total death toll at 7,287. 

As infections rise across Europe this week, Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced further restrictions that will go into effect from Saturday, including remote learning for younger children, cultural institutions closing, stores reducing capacity and hotels only opening for business trips.

"A step beyond the measures that we are announcing today is only a national quarantine, that is, a total lockdown," said Morawiecki.

Denmark, the world's largest producer of mink furs, plans to cull all mink in the country to contain a mutated form of novel coronavirus.

Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Wednesday the decision had been made with a "heavy heart," but it was necessary based on the recommendation of health authorities.

"The virus has mutated in mink. The mutated virus has spread to humans," Frederiksen said.

Statens Serum Institut, the Danish authority based in Copenhagen which deals with infectious diseases, had found five cases of the virus in mink farms and 12 examples in humans that showed reduced sensitivity to antibodies, she said. Allowing the virus to spread could potentially limit the effectiveness of future vaccines.

There are between 15 million and 17 million mink in Denmark, according to authorities. Outbreaks of coronavirus at the country's mink farms have persisted despite repeated efforts to cull infected animals since June.

One million mink within a five mile (8.4 kilometers) radius of suspected or confirmed farm infection were destroyed in October. Denmark's police, army and home guard will be deployed to speed up the culling process, Frederiksen said. Mink have also been culled in the Netherlands and Spain after infections were discovered there.

The Prime Minister said new restrictions will be introduced in certain areas of Denmark to contain the spread of the mutated virus, including Hjorring, Frederikshavn, Bronderslev, Jammerbugt, Vesthimmerland, Thisted and Laeso municipalities.

"Unfortunately, the residents of those municipalities have to prepare for further restrictions in the near future," she said.

High Covid and Air Pollution in New Delhi

New Delhi, the capital city with the worst air quality worldwide, suffered its most toxic day in a year on Thursday, recording the concentration of  PM2.5 particles at 14 times over the World Health Organization’s safe limit.

A raging coronavirus epidemic, with more than 400,000 confirmed cases in the city of 20 million, has heightened alarm over the health hazard posed by the choking smog, with doctors warning of a sharp increase in respiratory illnesses.

“We are seeing all round the sky is covered with smoke, and because of this the situation from coronavirus is worsening,” Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi’s chief minister, said in a recorded video on Twitter.

Delhi’s air pollution typically worsens in October and November due to farmers burning off stubble and coal-fired power plants in surrounding states, traffic fumes and windless days.

Kejriwal has banned use and sale of firecrackers in Delhi ahead of Diwali, the Hindu festival of light, and ramped up critical health infrastructure in state-run hospitals to control a surge in coronavirus cases due to pollution and the festive season, he said.

India’s coronavirus outbreak increased by more than 50,000 cases Thursday amid a resurgence of infections in the capital.

The Health Ministry also reported another 704 fatalities in the past 24 hours across the country, raising India’s overall death toll to 124,315.

Nerves are frayed in New Delhi after it reported a record 6,842 new cases in the past 24 hours. It has more than 37,000 active cases.

Other Asian Countries are Coping with the Virus in Different Ways

Indonesia’s economy has entered its first recession since the Asian financial crisis more than two decades ago as the country struggles to curb the coronavirus pandemic. Statistics Indonesia, the central statistics agency, said Thursday that Southeast Asia’s largest economy contracted at a 3.5% annual pace in July-September, the second consecutive quarterly contraction. The economy shrank at a 5.32% pace in the previous quarter and grew 2.9% in January-March, its slowest rate in almost two decades. Indonesia has reported more than 425,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, the largest in Southeast Asia and second only to India’s 8.3 million in all of Asia.

Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen and four Cabinet ministers were in quarantine Thursday after they met with Hungary’s foreign minister the same day he tested positive for the coronavirus. Hun Sen on his Facebook page said he has tested negative and would abide by the country’s coronavirus guidelines and stay quarantined for 14 days, during which he would not meet with family members or attend public events. The Cambodian Health Ministry said all 628 people who were part of the visit have tested negative so far. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto tested positive upon arrival in Thailand after his Cambodia visit.

China is suspending entry for most foreign passport holders resident in Britain in response to rising COVID-19 cases in the United Kingdom. The suspension covers those holding visas or residence permits issued prior to Nov. 3, with exceptions for diplomatic, service, courtesy or C visas, while foreign nationals visiting China for emergency needs may apply for special case visas. China has largely contained the spread of coronavirus within the country but continues to record imported cases, including another 20 reported on Thursday. It wasn’t immediately clear how many of those were arrivals from Britain. China requires all those arriving in China to undergo two weeks of quarantine.

Reusable Masks with Eco-Sustainable Material Components has Appeal to Mask Purchasers

Comfort and Attractiveness are two reasons the McIlvaine Company is predicting a huge market for CATE masks. These emotional drivers are impacted by the perceived eco-sustainability of the product. Eco-sustainability is of higher than average interest to people with allergies and asthma.   Therefore they are likely to pay more for masks which they believe to be better for the environment. So the purchase of reusable rather than disposable masks will be a preference. An additional but minor attraction is the use of recycled components.

The environmental benefits of reusable masks are being  extolled in the media. The Daily Orange an independent, nonprofit newspaper published in Syracuse, New York, provided a persuasive argument.

Each month, it is estimated 129 billion disposable masks are used globally. This means an incomprehensible 1.5 trillion disposable masks will be used in the next year. Meanwhile, disposable masks aren’t really disposable, like their name implies. Instead, discarded masks are sent to landfills where they never biodegrade and contribute to environmental litter that, before the pandemic, was just beginning to be cleaned up.

The United Nations estimates an increase in pollution from pandemic waste will cost $40 billion in damage to tourism and fisheries industries across the globe. Disposable masks serve the same purpose for the public as proper reusable masks but account for nearly all the pollution from masks. Outside the sterile environments of hospitals and food service, opting for a reusable mask over a disposable mask must be the solution. However, there is no large-scale incentive to encourage the public to do this.

Reluctance to switch to reusable masks is rooted in the convenience of their single-use counterparts. Both protect others from the wearer. However, disposable masks are readily available whether someone has a reusable mask or not. At Syracuse University, a portion of the 3.4 million disposable masks the school acquired will be available for visitors. This means if a visitor forgets a mask, it would not matter: a disposable mask would be provided. This is a practice that is commonly found across the nation for the safety of people in public places. However, the widespread availability of disposable masks is too wasteful when the simple solution is to wear a reusable mask instead.

In the public setting, a disposable mask puts an unnecessary burden on an already impacted environment. Christine Weber, public information and internal communications officer of the SU Campus Safety and Emergency Services department explained, “The University encourages individuals to properly dispose of damaged or discarded masks … in the trash.” This sentiment is exemplary of the fact a disposable mask cannot be recycled. Meanwhile, disposable masks are commonly made of materials such as polypropylene and polystyrene, two carbon-intensive materials that never biodegrade.

Providing mask with recycled components is a minor advantage. Face mask straps are one component that can be supplied with recycled nylon.
Healthy Seas, a journey from waste to wear, is an initiative that Aquafil founded in 2013 with another business (Star Sock) and an NGO.

The purpose of the initiative is to clean the oceans and seas of marine litter such as derelict fishnets responsible for the needless death of marine animals.

FAO and UNEP estimate that there are 640,000 tons of fishing nets in the oceans. These fishing nets, often called ghost nets, remain adrift for a substantial amount of time (500 years) and are responsible for the accidental capture of whales, turtles, birds and other marine mammals. This problem only continues to get worse each year.

Healthy Seas applies a two-way approach to achieve its mission. First, recovering ghost fishing nets from our seas and second, preventing that waste fishing nets will end up in the marine ecosystem. These prevention actions are implemented with the help of fishermen communities and fish farms as well as with educational programs and events that raise awareness.

The fishing nets recovered in collection points from the sea bed by volunteer divers are sent to Aquafil’s Slovenian regeneration plant. Here, thanks to a unique recycling process, the fishing nets of Healthy Seas, together with other nylon waste material, are regenerated to make first quality nylon yarn called ECONYL®.

This 100% regenerated nylon yarn, coming from waste material, is then used for garments and carpet flooring and can be used for masks.

As well as being a solution on waste, ECONYL® regenerated nylon is also better when it comes to climate change. It reduces the global warming impact of nylon by up to 90% compared with the material from oil.

Mask Inactivates Escaping Virus

Northwestern University Researchers say they’ve developed a chemically treated mask that could sanitize respiratory droplets containing the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. McIlvaine has pointed out that large cough and sneeze droplets initially captured in the mask evaporate and the virus becomes air borne. There is a debate over whether antimicrobials can inactive the virus in these droplets during the time between capture and evaporation.

The proof-of-concept design from researchers at Northwestern University in Illinois uses modified fabric treated with the antiviral chemicals phosphoric acid and copper salt.

In a simulation, the scientists said their mask sanitized up to 82 percent of escaped respiratory droplets. If this can be substantiated it would be impressive.

“These results suggest that the chemical modulation of respiratory droplets, when used in conjunction with face covering, could bring significant additional benefits to mitigate the spread of infectious respiratory diseases, especially for those transmittable through pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic carriers such as COVID-19,” the researchers wrote in the journal Matter.

Experts say the chemically treated masks could potentially be effective, but they shouldn’t distract from the basics of mask wearing.

“If such a mask is truly effective, affordable, nontoxic, and more comfortable to wear than the masks currently available, I could see it being most helpful for people who do not wear masks on the basis of breathability,” Dr. Anne Liu, an infectious disease physician at Stanford Health Care in California, told Healthline.

“However, I caution against getting too fancy with standard practice if these novelties distract from the basics, i.e., the workhorses of infection prevention: standard masks, hand hygiene, ventilation, and reasonable distancing,” she added. “Widely available surgical masks and multilayered cloth masks work very well to prevent viral transmission.”

The new coronavirus is believed to spread through close contact between people.

When a person with the virus coughs, talks, sneezes, and breathes, they produce respiratory droplets that others can then inhale, causing an infection.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)Trusted Source states that mask wearing is a crucial tool in stopping the spread of COVID-19.

The agency advises that everyone over the age of 2 years old wears a mask in public and when around people who don’t live in their household.

The Northwestern University researchers say their chemically treated masks are at proof-of-concept stage and more research is needed.

Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, says if the chemically treated masks are proven to be effective and can be made cheaply, he would consider wearing one.

But he argues that regular surgical masks currently available help stop the spread of the virus without the need for enhancements.

“A regular surgical mask substantially reduces the transmission of exhaled virus. It also offers some protection against inhaled virus. It works in both directions, but it’s principle function is to prevent you, who might be infected, from infecting others,” Schaffner told Healthline.

“Wearing a mask is fundamental to the reduction in transmission of the COVID virus,” he said. “It is the single most important thing all of us can do to inhibit the spread of the virus.”

“One can be totally without symptoms but nevertheless infected and therefore contagious, and that is the origin for the recommendation that we all wear masks,” Schaffner said.

“It is the simplest thing all of us can do. It’s cheap, it’s easy to do, and although it’s inconvenient and unusual for us to do this, it also turns out to be very effective,” he added.

In some cases, it’s still possible for respiratory droplets to escape standard surgical masks.

“We know from previous experience with COVID and viruses closely related to COVID, such as SARS1 and MERS, that the standard surgical masks prevented the wearer from getting infected in about two-thirds of the cases, so this would suggest that in about one-third of the cases, it did not protect,” Dr. Dean Blumberg, head of pediatric infectious disease at the University of California, Davis, told Healthline.

“The standard surgical mask has gaps in the sides where the air can go in,” he explained. “There’s a gap in the bottom and there may be a gap at the top, and because of those gaps, the wearer may not have a tight seal.”

The masks designed by the Northwestern researchers sanitized 82 percent of droplets in a simulation.

Blumberg says this would be an improvement on regular masks.

“It would be a step up from the 67 percent of protection that we currently get with standard surgical masks. So that would be an improvement, it would be a significant, incremental improvement,” he said.

All of the experts Healthline spoke with emphasized that innovation and advancements in the prevention of COVID-19 are important, but so is ensuring people wear their masks to begin with.

“I think first of all, at least in the U.S., I would just like everybody to wear a mask,” Blumberg said.

“That’s the lower-hanging fruit, is getting people to wear masks and then once they wear masks, then the next step is to wear masks that will be more effective in reducing transmission both to the person wearing the mask and to the person who may be infected — and for that we already know that the N95 masks are highly effective without having this antiviral activity on them,” he said.

New Hampshire Firms have Benefited from COVID Contracts Awarded Through the U.S. Defense Department

The New Hampshire Business Review reported on several COVID related contracts awarded by the Defense Department.

Lydall’s Performance Material Division’s Air Force contract to produce face mask material is clearly Covid-related.

The $13.5 million sole-source contract it signed with the Air Force in June was the PM division’s first and only in recent times, but it was the largest single private Covid-related contract awarded to a New Hampshire company. The company is putting the finishing touches on a 75,000-square-foot building that will eventually house three new machines and the Filtration Center of Excellence. It will be capable of producing material for 1.7 billion N-95 masks — half the amount needed nationwide — or more than 6 billion surgical masks, according to Ashish Diwanji, president of the PM division. The first machine was expected to arrive around Election Day.

The contract couldn’t come at a better time for the publicly traded company, which is headquartered in Connecticut.

Lydall — whose fabrics and other materials are used for insulation as well as filtration in many industrial applications — lost $74 million as of Sept. 30. In the second quarter, sales were off by a third, though they flattened out in the third quarter, partly due to the PM contract, increasing sales by 11.4%, he said.

Even before the new machinery’s arrival, the division was already “working 24/7,” churning out material at an annual rate of 350 million N-95 masks and about 400 million surgical masks, said Diwanji. Word spread to the White House. The contract to expand operations first came up in May, and U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-NH, jumped in to help. He was “constantly being approached” by her staff with offers to help, “and we were very grateful, since we haven’t done this before,” said Diwanji.

Although the Air Force is paying Lydall to expand, the material goes to Lydall’s customers, with the federal government agreeing to buy a certain number of the finished product, which it will distribute as needed.

The Rochester facility — which had about 120 people working there before the pandemic — hired and trained another 18.

Diwanji plans to add another dozen before the next two machines are online in June 2021. Among the hires will be scientists for the Filtration Center of Excellence, to enable it to continue to develop air quality filters to neutralize viruses.

“Clearly as the demand for the current surge falls off, we want to be ready for the shifting needs in indoor quality,” he said.

Vapotherm, a publicly traded firm based in Exeter, landed four contracts worth about $1.3 million. But it also received more purchase orders for its respiratory systems that help patients breathe but are not as intrusive as ventilators. One, ordered by the Army in May, went to Afghanistan.

Even without major federal contracts, “our company has been completely transformed by Covid. It has raised awareness of our technology and the value it can bring,” said Anthony Ten Haggen, vice president of legal affairs and compliance at Vapotherm.

The company has rapidly expanded to meet that challenge by increasing its workforce by about a third to 440, 165 of them working in Exeter.

Medicus Health Care Solutions LLC of Windham, a staffing agency for doctors and other advanced practitioners, actually was awarded the largest total of Covid contracts — 15.2 million — the largest singular contact being a $12 million deal with the Veteran Affairs for the VA medical center in the Bronx, N.Y. It was awarded in April at the height of the pandemic’s first surge.

“It was a big, awesome opportunity to help with the front lines,” said Courtney Gould, vice president of government placement for Medicus, which employs 200.

Evolve Technologies, a 17-person firm in Salem, works with agencies around the country to supply them with emergency equipment.

Its five Covid contracts, worth a total of $391,000, were for such items as rapid deployment shelters and isolation pods for transferring patients so they won’t affect others.

“Everything we are seeing right now has been responding to Covid or preparing for it,” said Olan Johnston, director of business development.

Old hands at contracting - unlike Lydall, Claremont-based Red River Technology is an old pro at government contracts, particularly military ones. It is part of a $120 billion federal contract portfolio, making the $4 million for some six Covid contracts seem small in comparison. Red River has a healthcare division and offers technological solutions for “clinical workflow, facilities, EMR, medical devices, security, regulatory issues, compliance,” according to its website. The four Covid contracts are to help meet technical needs at the Department of Health and Human Services, Social Security Administration, Veteran Affairs and the Agency for International Development.

Red River regularly pays American Defense International to lobby in Washington, but this year added Steve Scoffs and paid him $100,000. Scoffs lists Donald Trump and Koch Industries as his clients (though it should be noted that Red River’s chairman, Rick Bolduc, contributed to one of Trump’s opponents, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, in the 2016 presidential primary). The company did not return phone calls by NH Business Review’s deadline.

Carrigg Commercial Builders of Manchester is another experienced federal contractor, winning at least $127 million in contracts — $21 million in the last six months — almost all though Veterans Affairs.

The $725,000 in Covid-related contracts — all through the VA — include a $224,000 contract to install an emergency generator, a $245,000 contract to replace a front door as well as contracts for ambulance parking, a negative air exhaust duct and an emergency ramp, all at Massachusetts facilities.

Founder and owner Robert Carrigg was awarded the Bronze Star in 2007 for his actions during the Iraq War. He later went on to work for Blackwater, a private military company that has been a lightning rod for controversy, including legal troubles surrounding the alleged massacre of civilians in Fallujah.

In 2018, Carrigg was arrested and charged for pulling on a woman’s hijab, according to a New Hampshire Union Leader article. In June 2019, he pleaded no contest to simple assault and was sentenced to a 12-month suspended sentence, which he completed in July 2020, according to court records When asked whether Carrigg’s arrest affects his standing to get federal contracts, the VA replied that Carrigg was not on any excluded party list, and that he was a vendor in good standing.

Carrigg did not respond to a detailed voice message by NH Business Review’s deadline.

FLIR Commercial Systems Inc. also has legal issues but of another kind, though it is unlikely that they have anything to do with the Nashua facility that won an $807,000 thermometer contract from the Army. The publicly traded company, based in Oregon, produces and distributes thermal imaging products. Last quarter, revenues were $482 million and profits were $61 million, up by a third.

In 2018, FLIR signed a consent decree with the State Department for $30 million to resolve allegations of unauthorized export of technical data and defense services. It is also being investigated for other penalties involving sale of thermal projects to customers in China without proper licensing, according to its financial filings. In 2015, it agreed to pay a $9.5 million fine to the Securities and Exchange Commission for attempting to fly Mideast officials on a “world tour” to coax them into buying its products.

FLIR is well connected in Washington.

Its political action committee contributed $118,000 to candidates from both parties, and it has spent over $1 million on its own lobbyists as well as $230,000 on six other lobbying firms.