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A26 U.S. NEWS
Wednesday 15 april 2020
No hugs or handshakes: Pandemic complicates storm relief

Continued from Page 25 “We need money! We devastated southeastern on Tuesday morning, the industry. At least 90 poultry
need that stimulus check Mississippi with winds as city saw snow flurries. houses were damaged or
A twister left shingles, in- now!” a person in a pass- strong as 170 mph (273 Damage occurred up the destroyed, many near the
sulation and other debris ing pickup truck yelled out kph). East Coast, with a flurry of city of Collins.
strewn across Chatta- to Lee as he visited with Hundreds of homes and tornado warnings issued in “Although some houses
nooga, Tennessee. Almost people cleaning around businesses were damaged Delaware after storms left were between flocks and
every official on a tour their home. or destroyed across the the Southeast. empty, many of these
of storm damage wore The storms claimed lives in regoin, and heavy rains With the economy already houses had chickens in
a protective mask, and at least six states, and the caused flooding in some faltering because of busi- them,” poultry specialist
some wore gloves. Instead National Weather Service areas. Nashville, Tennes- ness shutdowns and job Tom Tabler said in a state-
of hugs and handshakes, said preliminary assess- see, broke a 71-year-old losses linked to the pan- ment. “Some would have
Gov. Bill Lee and Mayor ments found evidence record by receiving 2.23 demic, the Mississippi been chicks just a few days
Andy Berke offered elbow of at least 27 twisters. The inches (5.66 centimeters) State University Extension old, while others would
bumps while talking to af- strongest confirmed so far of rain in a day, the weath- Service said storms hit the have been flocks nearly
fected residents. was an EF-4 tornado that er service said. A day later, state’s $2.9 billion poultry ready for harvest.”q

Health care workers are 10%-20% of US coronavirus cases

By MIKE STOBBE ports of more than 315,000 cases in the U.S. The to 31% of overall cases. That may reflect the
AP Medical Writer new report focused on about 49,000 for which younger age of the workers, as well as prioritiza-
NEW YORK (AP) — Between 10% and 20% of researchers had data on whether or not they tion of testing for health care employees, the
U.S. coronavirus cases are health care workers, worked in health care. About 9,300, or 19%, of report said.
though they tended to be hospitalized at low- them were medical professionals. That includ- Slightly more than half of a group of infected
er rates than other patients, officials reported ed 27 who died. health care workers studied said their only
Tuesday. But the data varied in how complete it was, re- known exposure to the virus was at work, but
The Centers for Disease Control and Preven- searchers said. In 12 states that did a better job researchers say it's hard to know for sure how
tion reported the first national data on how the reporting on whether patients worked in medi- different people caught the bug.
pandemic is hitting doctors, nurses and other cine, around 11% of cases were health care A second report released Tuesday looked at
health care professionals. workers. three health care workers who became infect-
The data is important new information but not Compared with U.S. cases overall, larger pro- ed after treating a patient in Solano County,
necessarily surprising, said Dr. Anne Schuchat, portions of diagnosed health care workers California, in what was one of the first instances
who is running the federal agency's response were women, were white, and were young or of disease spread to medical personnel in the
to the outbreak. Medical staff have also been middle-aged adults. That's consistent with the U.S. Workers didn't initially know the patient was
hit hard in other countries: Media reports said demographics of who works in health care, re- infected with the coronavirus. All three did not
about 10% of cases in Italy and Spain were searchers said. wear eye protection or some other forms of pro-
health care workers. About 10% of the health care workers were hos- tective equipment at least part of the time they
As of the middle of last week, the CDC had re- pitalized with symptoms, compared with 21% were caring for the person, researchers said.q