Two Passengers on a Mediterranean Cruise Ship Tested Positive for Covid-19.

Royal Caribbean Also has Two Positive Cases

Employers Need to Upgrade Ventilation Systems for Returning Office Workers

India COVID Death Total Soars to Possibly 1.8 Million

Florida Group Donating Masks to India

Masks are What is Needed Now in India

Santa Barbara Residents Encouraged to Plan for Poor Air Quality Caused by Wildfire Smoke

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Two Passengers on a Mediterranean Cruise Ship Tested Positive for Covid-19.

Two passengers on a cruise ship in the Mediterranean have tested positive for Covid-19.

The pair were traveling on the MSC Seaside cruise ship and disembarked with their families in Syracuse, Sicily, on Tuesday, MSC told CNN on Wednesday. The two passengers were asymptomatic.

The cruise had previously docked in Malta but the passengers were forbidden to disembark as the ship only made a "technical" call, according to the cruise operator, which would not disclose the nationality nor the total number of passengers on board.

All passengers traveling with MSC must have a Covid-19 test 96 hours before departure, another when they embark, and a third during the cruise. MSC does not require passengers to be vaccinated, but the rules apply to those who have been.

Guests on board are required to wear masks in public spaces and social distance.

"Our protocol is working, if not on board those two people would still be freely circulating," said MSC spokesperson Michele Curatolo.

The company has a contingency plan for each port of call, added Cuartolo, which meant that a "protective transfer was immediately activated" for the two passengers who tested positive.

Luca Biondolillo, chief communications officer of MSC Cruise, said that three of the company's vessels are currently at sea, a number due to increase to eight by August.

In August 2020, MSC cruises was the first major cruise line to resume sailing in Europe after the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic subsided.

The cruise line has been running Italian sailings on and off since then, and recently launched the UK's first cruise in over a year.

Those wishing to take a cruise from the United States have had to put their plans on hold due to the pandemic, but there's hope on the horizon.

Sailings on numerous cruise lines are slated to embark from US ports within the next month, nearly 15 months after a no-sail order from the US Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention brought cruises to a halt.

Most ships are still awaiting CDC approval to sail. Since October of last year, the agency has issued a series of evolving requirements and guidelines in the form of a Conditional Sailing Order.

 

Royal Caribbean Also has Two Positive Cases

Two passengers on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship tested positive for Covid-19, officials said Thursday.

Celebrity Millennium, which is part of Celebrity Cruises owned by the Royal Caribbean Group, was the first cruise ship to sail out of North America since the coronavirus pandemic began in 2020, Celebrity Cruises said in a news release.

"Today two guests sharing a stateroom onboard Celebrity Millennium tested positive for Covid-19 while conducting the required end of cruise testing," the cruise line company said. "The individuals are asymptomatic and currently in isolation and being monitored by our medical team."

All guests were required to show a negative Covid-19 test and proof of vaccination 72 hours before its departure on Saturday, the company said.

Celebrity Millennium is sailing with fully vaccinated crew and guests and following comprehensive protocols that align with our destination partners and exceed CDC guidelines to protect the health and safety of our guests," Celebrity Cruises said. "This situation demonstrates that our rigorous health and safety protocols work to protect our crew, guests and the communities we visit."

The Celebrity Millennium is a 7-day cruise from St. Maarten, the Caribbean port of Philipsburg, with additional stops in Aruba, Barbados and Curacao.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gave the go-ahead to begin work toward restarting cruises for the first time in over a year after the massive ships became some of the first superspreader locations for the coronavirus.

 

Employers Need to Upgrade Ventilation Systems for Returning Office Workers

Because the coronavirus is thought to spread primarily through tiny, airborne droplets, employers should upgrade their ventilation and filtration systems before bringing workers back, experts said.

“One thing you can do before you go back to work is simply ask them what they’ve done,” Dr. Allen said. “And if you hear things like, ‘Yes, we’re meeting code,’ then that’s a flag that something’s not right. They should be going above and beyond the bare minimum ventilation and filtration rates.”

Although the ideal ventilation rate varies, in general, employers should maximize the amount of fresh air coming in from outdoors, he said. In a relatively small space — say, the size of a typical school classroom — employers should aim for four to six air changes per hour, meaning that the air inside the space is being completely refreshed every 10 to 15 minutes. Opening windows can also improve air flow.

High-quality air filters, like those that are rated as MERV 13 or higher, can trap a majority of airborne viral particles. Some commercial buildings are not equipped for these heavy-duty filters; in those offices, portable air purifiers, equipped with HEPA filters, can be effective, experts said.

“These types of portable units can do a great job of taking particles out of the room,” Dr. Huffman said. “And the next level is even a desktop level HEPA filter, where you have a really small unit that provides clean air into your direct breathing zone.”

These personal units may be particularly helpful in poorly ventilated offices, although experts stressed that employers, not employees, should bear the burden of improving indoor air quality.

Experts warn against adding chemical disinfectants to the air. And in most ordinary workplaces, wiping down one’s desk with bleach is likely to do more harm than good.

While ventilation and filtration are crucial, employers and building managers should stay away from foggers, fumigators, ionizers, ozone generators or other “air cleaning” devices that promise to neutralize the coronavirus by adding chemical disinfectants to the air. “These are all really terrible ideas of things to do to indoor air,” said Delphine Farmer, an atmospheric chemist at Colorado State University.

The compounds that these products emit — which may include hydrogen peroxide, bleach-like solutions or ozone — can be toxic, inflaming the lungs, causing asthma attacks and leading to other kinds of respiratory or cardiovascular problems. And there is not rigorous, real-world evidence that these devices actually reduce disease transmission, Dr. Farmer said.

“A lot of employers are now — and school districts and building managers are now — thinking that they have solved the problem by using those devices,” Dr. Farmer said. “So then they are not increasing ventilation rates or adding other filters. And so that means that people think that they’re safer than they actually are.”

Surfaces pose minimal risk for coronavirus transmission, and disinfectants needlessly applied to them can also wind up in the air and can be toxic when inhaled. So in most ordinary workplaces, wiping down your desk with bleach is likely to do more harm than good, Dr. Farmer said. (Some specific workplaces — such as hospitals, laboratories or industrial kitchens — may still require disinfection, experts noted.)

Nor is there any particular need for special antimicrobial wipes or cleansers, which may fuel the emergence of antibiotic resistant bacteria and wipe out communities of benign or beneficial microbes. “As tempting as it may be to try to sterilize everything, it’s never going to happen, and there may be some real serious consequences,” said Erica Hartmann, an environmental microbiologist at Northwestern University.

In the early months of the pandemic, plastic barriers sprang up in schools, stores, restaurants, offices and other shared spaces. “They can be great to stop the bigger droplets — really they’re big sneeze guards,” Dr. Huffman said.

But the smallest, lightest particles can simply float over and around them. These barriers “may not provide enough benefit to justify their costs,” said Martin Bazant, a chemical engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They may even raise the risk of disease transmission, by encouraging riskier behavior or impeding air flow.

There are some environments in which these kinds of barriers may still make sense. “It can be a really good idea for people who would otherwise have very close face-to-face contact, like grocery store workers at cash registers,” Dr. Farmer said. “But past that, in offices where you’re sitting for a lengthy period of time, there is no benefit to putting yourself in a plexiglass cage.”

 

Social distancing may still have some benefits; if an employee is exhaling infectious virus, people sitting directly in that person’s breathing zone will quite likely be exposed to the highest doses. “If you were sitting at a shared table space, two feet away from someone, then there could be some potential value to moving away a little bit further,” Dr. Huffman said.

But aerosols can stay aloft for hours and travel far beyond six feet, so moving desks farther apart is likely to have diminishing returns. “Strict distancing orders, such as the six-foot rule, do little to protect against long-range airborne transmission,” Dr. Bazant said, “and may provide a false sense of security in poorly ventilated spaces.”

In offices in which most people are vaccinated and local case rates are low, the benefits of distancing are probably minimal, scientists said. Higher-risk workplaces may want to consider de-densification or reducing the number of people — any one of whom might be infectious — who are present at the same time. “That, to me, has been the biggest benefit of this social distancing indoors,” Dr. Farmer said. “It’s just having fewer potential sources of SARS-CoV-2 in a room.”

Companies could allow a subset of employees to work at home indefinitely or on alternating days or weeks. They could also consider “cohorting,” or creating separate teams of workers that do not have in-person interactions with those who are not on their team.

Creating these kinds of cohorts could also make it easier to respond if someone does contract the virus, allowing the affected team to quarantine without having to shut down an entire workplace. “When we think about reopening, we need to think about what do we do when, inevitably, we see a case?” said Justin Lessler, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University. “There are creative ways to lessen the impact.”

 

In offices in which most people are vaccinated and local case rates are low, the benefits of distancing are probably minimal, scientists said. But higher-risk workplaces may want to consider de-densification.

Regular hand-washing, which can reduce the spread of all kinds of pathogens, is always a good idea. “The messaging at the beginning of the pandemic about washing your hands and washing your hands for at least 20 seconds — that is totally valid and still really important,” Dr. Hartmann said.

And when your office itself needs cleaning, a mild detergent will generally do the trick, she added: “Soap and water is great.”

Masks, too, remain effective. “If you’re someone who’s vaccinated and still feeling anxious about going back to work, the best thing to do is continue to wear a mask for the first couple of weeks until you feel more comfortable,” Dr. Allen said.

Scientists recommended that unvaccinated workers continue to wear masks in the office. But for those who are eligible, the most effective risk reduction strategy is obvious, Dr. Allen said: “The No. 1 thing is to get vaccinated.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/11/health/coronavirus-reopening-office.html

 

India COVID Death Total Soars to Possibly 1.8 Million

India’s daily tally of coronavirus deaths has reached more than 6,000 after a single state dramatically revised its data for fatalities during the second wave, increasing fears that the country’s toll is much higher than reported.

While the daily total would be a global record for a single day, it appears that Bihar’s addition of approximately 4,000 extra deaths after a court challenge accounts for deaths that occurred throughout India’s devastating second wave of infections.

The new total comes as official figures for nationwide infections in India showed a third day under 100,000, suggesting the latest surge may be declining.

According to health ministry figures, 6,148 people died in the previous 24 hours, taking total fatalities to almost 360,000, the world’s third highest. The previous world record, according to an AFP tally, was 5,527 in the US on February 12th, although this was also because of an upwards revision of earlier deaths.

The revision came amid allegations that the state of Bihar had undercounted its death toll, which had led the high court in Patna to order a detailed audit that now includes those who died from Covid complications after recovering from the disease, and also those who died on the way to the hospital.

Similar accusations have been levelled at other state governments after a recent coronavirus surge resulted in crematoriums being overwhelmed in many places and hundreds of bodies being dumped in rivers or buried in shallow graves.

With record-keeping poor even in normal times, many experts believe India’s death toll is several times higher than the official number, meaning it could be more than a million, which would make it the world’s highest.

The newly reported deaths had occurred last month and state officials were investigating the lapse, a district health official said, blaming the oversight on private hospitals. “These deaths occurred 15 days ago and were only uploaded now in the government portal. Action will be taken against some of the private hospitals,” said the official, who declined to be identified as he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Suspicions have been heightened by the fact that death rates in many countries, for example in Brazil and the US, are several times higher than in India.

While India’s official Covid-19 death toll stands at 359,676, C-Voter, an Indian research and polling agency, estimated last month that at least 1.8 million Indians may have died from Covid-19. If these numbers are accurate, it would mean that India has been by far the worst-hit country.

“Under-reporting is a widespread problem, not necessarily deliberate, often because of inadequacies,” said Rajib Dasgupta, head of the Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University. “In the rural context, whatever states may say or claim, testing is not simple, easy or accessible,” he said.

The government dismissed those estimates as exaggerated. But the main opposition Congress party said other states must follow Bihar’s example and conduct a review of deaths over the past two months. “This proves beyond a doubt government has been hiding Covid deaths,” said Shama Mohamed, a Congress spokesperson, adding that an audit should also be ordered in the big states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.

F

lorida Group Donating Masks to India

The COVID-19 crisis continues to impact some of the most vulnerable countries like India, which has now surpassed 353,000 deaths and more than 29 million cases of the deadly virus, according to the Johns Hopkins University Center.

In Central Florida, the Indian American Chamber of Commerce is collecting face masks, hand sanitizer and cleaning wipes. Two weeks ago, IACC delivered more than 500 oxygen concentrators.

“You don’t see the pictures of what’s really going on in the rural areas. You really only see in the bigger cities. It’s actually worse in those areas because they don’t have any doctors they can go to, any hospitals they can go to nearby,” IACC in Orlando president Jay Shah said.

Shah recently lost an uncle to the virus. He said the most difficult part was not being able to give him a proper burial and attend the 14-day ritual. Due to the pandemic, those traditions have been altered and loved ones are cremated quickly.

“We believe in reincarnation so that ritual is also part of them being reincarnated to come back in a better life form in the future and you’re not getting that proper ritual,” Shah said.

“(The) situation is completely out of control. Nobody was prepared for that. Nobody thought it would spread like this,” Parth Trivedi said.

Shah said the goal right now is to get as much personal protective equipment to rural areas in India.

 

Masks are What is Needed Now in India

The second wave of Coronavirus is far more deadly and aggressive than the first. India is currently drowning under the surge of cases and increased fatality rate. During these trying times, it has become all the more important to follow COVID-19 protocols. Continuing social distancing, and other precautionary measures like the use of face masks, and handwashing, could possibly help in limiting the spread of COVID-19. 
 

Now, researchers have found under which conditions and in which ways, masks actually reduce individual and population-average risks of being infected with Covid-19 and help mitigate the coronavirus pandemic.
 

The study, led by researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Germany’s Mainz, showed that in most environments and situations, even simple surgical masks effectively reduce the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and the effective reproduction number for Covid-19.
 

“For the airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2, we find that usually just a minor fraction of exhaled respiratory particles contains viruses. Most environments and contacts are under virus-limited conditions, where face masks, including simple surgical masks, have a high efficacy in preventing the spread of Covid-19,” said Yafang Cheng, the head of the Minerva Research Group at Max Planck.

In environments with potentially high airborne virus concentrations such as medical settings and densely occupied indoor spaces, masks with higher filtration efficiency (N95/FFP2) should be used and combined with other protective measures such as intensive ventilation.

 In most situations, even simple surgical masks are effective.

“The combination of high-efficiency masks with other protective measures is particularly important for hospitals, medical centres, and other indoor environments, where high-risk patients may encounter high virus concentrations,” said Christian Witt, head of the Research Area Pneumology at the Charite Universitatsmedizin Berlin.

“Masks will remain an important protective measure against SARS-Cov-2 infection — even for vaccinated persons, especially when the protection provided by vaccination decreases over time,” Witt said.

For the study, published in the journal Science, the team used observational data and a novel quantitative model of airborne virus exposure to elucidate how the efficacy of face masks depends on characteristic regimes of airborne virus concentration.

The approach can be used to assess protection against more infectious mutants of Covid. It is also applicable to a wide range of respiratory viruses and diseases, including coronaviruses, rhinoviruses, and influenza.

The findings showed that aerosol transmission does not necessarily lead to very high reproduction numbers as observed for measles, and that relatively low reproduction numbers do not rule out airborne transmission.

Santa Barbara Residents Encouraged to Plan for Poor Air Quality Caused by Wildfire Smoke

The Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District and Santa Barbara County Public Health Department offer tips to decrease particulate matter from smoke and ash. The tiny particles can harm the lungs and heart and cause coughing, wheezing, difficulty breathing, chest pain, nausea, and in severe instances, premature mortality. 

People with heart or lung disease, seniors, children and pregnant women are especially sensitive to smoke. 

The air pollution control district and health department say the best protection against wildfire smoke is to stay indoors. 

To further protect your family, the district and department suggest these steps:

— Pick a HEPA (High-Efficiency Particulate Air) purifier to reduce particulate matter indoors by 90%. These can be purchased at hardware stores or online retailers.

— Make sure that the HEPA doesn’t create ozone. Find a list of safe options at www.arb.ca.gov/research/indoor/aircleaners/certified.htm.

— HEPA purifiers come in various makes and models for different room sizes. Use the purifier in a room where you spend a lot of time like a bedroom. HEPA purifiers for an average-sized bedroom cost approximately $75.

— Check your windows and doors, and make sure the room is sealed tightly so smoke from the outdoors does not get pulled inside.

— Replace the filter as directed in the owner’s manual. Filters need to be replaced more frequently if used during a wildfire.

A do-it-yourself version of an air purifier can be a more affordable option, with materials costing around $40. Such a version has been found to reduce harmful particles indoors in a way similar to that of a HEPA purifier.

Here’s how to make your own purifier.

—  Use tape to attach a 20-by-20 MERV-rated air filter — like what you would use for your HVAC system — to the back of a 20-by-20 box fan. Attaching to the back of the fan creates a better seal.

—  Use a filter with a MERV rating of 13.

— Check the filter for the direction of the air flow marked on the side of the filter.

— Check your windows and doors, and make sure the room is sealed.

—  Replace the filter more frequently if used during a wildfire.

— As needed, disassemble the box fan to wipe away any accumulated dirt.

For safety, follow these precautions with your filters:

— Use a box fan that is from 2012 or newer because of added safety features.

— Don’t leave the device unattended.

— Turn off the device while sleeping.

— When the fan is modified in this way, use the device as an air cleaner, not as a fan to cool your home.

The air pollution control district and health department also give these tips about minimizing particles indoors.

— If advised to stay inside, keep windows and doors shut and sealed tightly.

— If temperatures are high and there is no way to keep the home cool with windows and doors shut, consider temporarily moving somewhere with better air quality.

— Upgrade your filter in your HVAC system to a MERV filter with a rating of at least 13. Check with your HVAC professional to see what MERV rating your HVAC system can handle to ensure proper functionality. 

— Do not smoke or burn firewood, candles or incense in the house.

— Use your range hood while cooking, especially when using a gas stove.

— Consider using professional services for a blower door test to detect air leaks. This service can help you know how to properly seal your home.