Health and Medicine
After an employee tested positive the Franklin County Treasurer’s office will be closed to the public the remainder of this week to protect other employees and citizens from the community spread of COVID-19. County residents can still pay taxes online, over the phone or in-person using the drop box at the Treasurer’s Office located in the Franklin County Government Center. Other business with the Treasurer’s Office this week can be conducted through the Franklin CountyVa.gov website.
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The Franklin County Sheriff’s office said today that near the end of September an offender was quarantined and tested for COVID after presenting sinus or allergy-like symptoms. The test results returned as positive. Since that time, there have been other offenders and corrections staff testing positive for COVID-19. The Western Virginia Regional Jail is now assisting with temporary housing for Franklin County offenders to keep them separate from the county jail staff.
October is breast cancer awareness month, and while the need for getting annual mammograms is widely reported, most women in age groups considered most at risk do not get one. The standard guidance is for women 40 and over, regardless of known risk factors, to get a mammogram each year. WFIR’s Evan Jones has more:
Dr. Cynthia Morrow-VT photo
There are currently 26 active “outbreaks” of the coronavirus in the Roanoke City and Alleghany Health Districts. That was the word today from Dr. Cynthia Morrow, the new director. Its the largest number of COVID outbreaks since the pandemic was declared in March. Morrow says its important to “stay vigilant” – avoid large crowds, close contact and closed- in spaces. Looking at the numbers Morrow also said the local health districts should really be in Phase 1 or 2 “at the best” – not the current Phase 3 level.
Gov. Ralph Northam
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia’s governor said he has developed mild symptoms of the coronavirus a little less than two weeks after he and the state’s first lady tested positive.
Ralph Northam said Monday that he had “a little bit of cold-like symptoms over the weekend” and had lost his sense of taste and smell, The Washington Post reported.
The Democratic governor said other than that, he felt fine. Northam, 61, said he learned on Sept. 25 that he and first lady Pam Northam had tested positive for COVID-19.
In a tweet Monday, Trump told the American people: “Don’t be afraid of COVID. Don’t let it dominate your life.”
Northam said Trump sent the wrong message. The governor pointed out that more than 200,000 Americans have died and more than 7 million people across the globe have been infected.
“It’s irresponsible to make a statement like that,” Northam said.
Northam is a former military doctor who served on the staff at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. He noted that Trump “has access to the best medical care, medications, treatments other people don’t have access to.”
About a year ago we introduced Huddle Up Moms to our listening audience when several founding members of the Roanoke-based support group were live in-studio. This morning “HUM” was back with an update and news about an upcoming virtual summit on October 17. Dr Jacklyn Nunziato, a Carilion OB-GYN physician and Kim Whiter, HUM’s Director of Fundraising & Development/business owner/college faculty development specialist/mother of two joined us again this morning by phone. Hear the full length conversation below:
White House photo
WASHINGTON (AP) — A feverish and fatigued President Donald Trump was spending the weekend at a military hospital for treatment of COVID-19, as new cases emerged among some of his top advisers and allies. Attention focused in particular on last Saturday’s White House event introducing Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, with several attendees announcing they had tested positive for the virus.
Among them: former White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, the president of the University of Notre Dame, and at least two Republican lawmakers — Utah Sen. Mike Lee and North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis. Though the ceremony announcing Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination was held outdoors, attendees sat closely together and few wore masks. Some also mingled at a smaller event inside the White House.
The White House said Trump’s expected stay of “a few days” at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center was precautionary and he would continue to work from the hospital’s presidential suite, which is equipped to allow him to keep up his official duties. The White House physician said he was being treated with remdesivir, an antiviral medication, after taking another experimental drug at the White House.
The decision for the president to leave the White House for the hospital capped a day of whipsaw events in Washington Friday. The president, who has spent months playing down the threat of the virus, was forced to cancel all campaign events a month before the election as he fought a virus that has killed more than 205,000 Americans and is hitting others in his orbit as well.
In a video taped before leaving for Walter Reed, Trump said, “I think I’m doing very well, but we’re going to make sure that things work out.” He remained fully president, all authority intact.
“Going welI, I think! Thank you to all. LOVE!!!” he wrote in his first tweet from the hospital Friday night.
Trump first revealed that he had tested positive in a tweet about 1 a.m. Friday — hours after he returned from a Thursday afternoon political fundraiser. He had gone ahead to the event, saying nothing to the crowd though knowing he had been exposed to an aide with the disease that has infected millions in America and killed more than 1 million people worldwide.
First lady Melania Trump also tested positive and has said she has mild symptoms. She is believed to be isolating at the White House.
Also testing positive: Trump’s campaign manager, Bill Stepien. Campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh said Stepien received a diagnosis Friday and is experiencing “mild flu-like symptoms.” Stepien, who joined Trump at Tuesday’s first presidential debate, plans to quarantine until he recovers. On Saturday, Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin became the third Senate Republican to publicly confirm testing positive in the current spate of infections, although Johnson was not at last week’s Rose Garden event.
Trump’s diagnosis came during an already turbulent period in Washington and around the world, with the U.S. gripped in a heated presidential election and the pandemic taking a heavy human and economic toll. Trump’s immediate campaign events were all canceled, and his next debate with Democrat Joe Biden, scheduled for Oct. 15, is now in question.
Trump has been trying all year — and as recently as Wednesday — to convince the American public that the worst of the pandemic is past, and he has consistently played down concerns about being personally vulnerable. He has mostly refused to abide by basic public health guidelines — including those issued by his own administration — such as wearing face coverings in public and practicing social distancing. Until he tested positive, he continued to hold campaign rallies that drew thousands of often maskless supporters.
“I felt no vulnerability whatsoever,” he told reporters back in May. With the election coming up in a month, he is urging states and cities to “reopen” and reduce or eliminate shutdown rules despite continuing virus outbreaks.
The White House tried to maintain an atmosphere of business-as-usual on Friday.
“President Trump remains in good spirts, has mild symptoms, and has been working throughout the day,” said press secretary Kayleigh McEnany. “Out of an abundance of caution, and at the recommendation of his physician and medical experts, the president will be working from the presidential offices at Walter Reed for the next few days.”
The president’s physician said in a memo that Trump received a dose of an experimental antibody combination by Regeneron that is in clinical trials. Navy Commander Dr. Sean Conley said Trump “remains fatigued but in good spirits” and that a team of experts was evaluating both the president and first lady in regard to next steps.
Late Friday, Conley issued an update that said Trump is “doing very well” and is “not requiring any supplemental oxygen.” But he said that, “in consultation with specialists we have elected to initiate remdesivir therapy,” an antiviral medication.
“He has completed his first dose and is resting comfortably,” the doctor wrote.
The first lady, who is 50, has a “mild cough and headache,” Conley reported, and the remainder of the first family, including the Trumps’ son Barron, who lives at the White House, tested negative.
Trump is 74 years old and clinically obese, putting him at higher risk of serious complications from a virus that has infected more than 7 million people nationwide.
Both Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris have tested negative, their campaign said. Vice President Mike Pence tested negative for the virus Friday morning and “remains in good health,” his spokesman said. Pence was to resume his campaign schedule after his test.
Barrett, who was with Trump and many others on Saturday and has been on a Capitol Hill meeting with lawmakers, also tested negative, the White House said. It was confirmed that she had a mild case of COVID earlier this year and has now recovered.
Many White House and senior administration officials were undergoing tests,, but the full scale of the outbreak around the president may not be known for some time as it can take days for an infection to be detectable by a test. Officials with the White House Medical Unit were tracing the president’s contacts.
Trump’s handling of the pandemic has already been a flashpoint in his race against Biden, who spent much of the summer off the campaign trail and at his home in Delaware, citing concern about the virus. Biden has since resumed a more active campaign schedule, but with small, socially distanced crowds. He also regularly wears a mask in public, something Trump mocked him for at Tuesday night’s debate.
“I don’t wear masks like him,” Trump said. “Every time you see him, he’s got a mask. He could be speaking 200 feet away from me, and he shows up with the biggest mask I’ve ever seen.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has already disrupted our lives in many ways — and for some people, it may become even more difficult when the holidays arrive. A Virginia Tech professor says families and close friends should start thinking now about how to help isolated loved ones when the holidays arrive. WFIR’s Evan Jones has more:
VIRGINIA TECH NEWS RELEASE: Sept. 29, 2020 – For many people, holidays signal chances to have special time with family members and friends. But what can we do when we’re restricted by the pandemic from gathering together for Diwali, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, or Kwanza?
“Although physical distancing is required for our health and safety, that does not mean we have to be socially removed from those we care about,” says Virginia Tech expert Rosemary Blieszner. “Keeping in touch with loved ones is important for our mental health and happiness.”
Blieszner says that showing affection and feeling that someone cares about you is essential for physical health as well. Research shows that people who are socially involved have a reduced risk of illness and a greater likelihood of living longer.
Here are some ideas for kindling that warm, close feeling during the holidays – and all year round, pandemic or not.
- Video calls or phone calls with family and friends for catching up, storytelling, poetry reading, drumming, or singing. Have those on the call each give a reason they feel grateful or tell what they remember and appreciate about ancestors.
- Quick emails or text messages to let someone special know you are thinking of them.
- Make and mail a simple card with a holiday greeting.
- Start a round-robin newsy letter, recipe exchange, or photo album. Invite family or friends to add their part and pass it on through the mail.
- Using email, each person adds a line to a poem that someone starts, builds a story paragraph by paragraph, or draws a new panel in a collective cartoon. Then send it on to the next person on the list.
- Hold porch or driveway catch-up conversations.
- Try old-fashioned Christmas caroling – on the front sidewalk, at the end of the apartment building hallway, or on a video call.
- Let local family and friends know that you’ll be doing drive-by greetings on a certain day and time so they can come outside. Give them a wave as you pass by.
- Visit with someone special through the window or storm door.
- Find an on-line travelogue, museum tour, or inspiring musical piece. Encourage others to watch or listen, then talk about it on the phone or a video call.
- Create a virtual book club. Invite family or friends to read the same good book with you, then talk about it on the phone or a video call.
If you are healthy, have no symptoms of COVID-19 and have not been around anyone who has symptoms or a diagnosis of COVID-19, and think it might be safe to visit with loved ones in person, here are some important tips:
- Get a flu shot.
- Always follow local health and safety guidelines concerning gatherings and avoid traveling to places with high numbers of COVID-19 cases.
- Wear a face covering over your nose and mouth to keep everyone around you safe, and make sure others are wearing masks as well.
- Create a small social bubble or pod – people who are practicing all the guidelines related to wearing a face covering, washing hands often, avoiding crowds, and committing to being together in person only with other members of the pod. Celebrate holidays only with those in your social bubble.
- The CDC points out thatin general,the more people you interact with, the more closely you interact with them, and the longer that interaction, the higher the risk of COVID-19 spread.
- Visit outdoors or make sure indoor spaces are well ventilated with open windows or doors. Those from the same household can sit together, but the space should be large enough to make sure those from different households are keeping at least 6 feet apart.
- Avoid buffet-style eating. Have one person serve everyone else to avoid many people handling the same items.
- While celebrating together, ask everyone to take a break from phones and social media – be really present and in the moment with each other.
White House photo
(from Fox News) President Trump announced early Friday morning that both he and the First Lady Melania Trump tested positive for COVID-19 and will quarantine at the White House. “Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19,” the president tweeted. “We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately.” In doing so, he joins a growing list of world leaders who have previously contracted the disease. Since the start of the pandemic, at least seven major world leaders have tested positive for the virus, the most notable ones being Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Trump’s age, 74, places him within a category of people deemed to be at the highest risk of severe complications from the virus. (Trump’s close aide Hope Hicks had previously tested positive, leading to the President and First Lady’s test)
