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| Benchmarks' Friday Membership Webinar: October 23, 2020 |
NC Cases: 252,992
Cases Hospitalized: 1,169
NC Deaths: 4,032
Positive Tests: 7-day average was 6.2%
Phase 3
Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan and Lynn Bonner, THE NEWS & OBSERVER, 10/21/20
Gov. Roy Cooper on Wednesday extended Phase 3 of the pandemic reopening plan until Nov. 13, as COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations reach highs not seen since the summer's worst weeks. While North Carolina has not experienced the same spikes in coronavirus cases that other states have, the state's new cases plateaued at a level that state officials have said is too high. Wednesday, the state counted more than 4,000 COVID-19 related deaths since the coronavirus pandemic started in March.
Cooper and Dr. Mandy Cohen, secretary of the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, often use a "dimmer switch" analogy to describe how the state will gradually loosen restrictions on businesses and leisure activity. But the switch has never shifted backward to tighten rules, while some reopening phases have been altered or extended from the plan outlined in the spring. With new cases rising, the state is asking elected officials in 36 counties, including Wake and Johnston, to consider actions to "improve compliance" with executive orders. The 36 counties include the state's three most populous counties; have had 300 new cases in the last 14 days; or have had more than 50 cases for every 10,000 residents, according to a news release.
Those actions could include adopting ordinances that would impose fines for violating COVID-19 executive orders, and allowing local health directors to issue imminent hazard abatement orders, DHHS said in a Wednesday press release. The letters were written by Cohen and Erik Hooks, secretary of the state Department of Public Safety. Cooper said he hopes more local enforcement of health safety measures and the re-emphasis on local authority will drive down viral spread. "We're hoping all of that can help us stem the tide that we see coming at us," he said at a news conference Wednesday. More imminent hazard abatements are expected in the coming days, he said. Local actions send "a strong signal to businesses that it's important for the health of the community and the economy of the community for them to take steps to slow the spread of the virus," Cooper said.
CDC expands definition of who is a 'close contact' of an individual with covid-19
Washington Post
Federal health officials issued new guidance on Wednesday that greatly expands the pool of people considered at risk of contracting the novel coronavirus by changing the definition of who is a "close contact" of an infected individual.
The change by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is likely to have its biggest impact in schools, workplaces and other group settings where people are in contact with others for long periods of time. It also underscores the importance of mask-wearing to prevent spread of the virus, even as President Trump and his top coronavirus adviser continue to raise doubts about such guidance.
The CDC had previously defined a "close contact" as someone who spent at least 15 consecutive minutes within six feet of a confirmed coronavirus case. The updated guidance, which health departments rely on to conduct contact tracing, now defines a close contact as someone who was within six feet of an infected individual for a total of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period, according to a CDC statement Wednesday.
The update comes as the United States is "unfortunately seeing a distressing trend, with cases increasing in nearly 75 percent of the country," Jay Butler, the CDC's deputy director for infectious diseases, said Wednesday at CDC headquarters in Atlanta, in the first news conference administration officials permitted in more than eight weeks. People may be tired of the advice, Butler said, but mask-wearing is more important than ever this fall and winter as Americans head indoors, where transmission risks are greater.
CDC and Vermont health officials discovered the virus was contracted by a 20-year-old prison employee who in an eight-hour shift had 22 interactions - for a total of over 17 minutes - with individuals who later tested positive for the virus.
"Available data suggests that at least one of the asymptomatic person transmitted the virus during these brief encounters, the report said. "This article adds to the scientific knowledge of the risk to contacts of those with covid-19 and highlights again the importance of wearing face masks to prevent transmission," the CDC said.
As many as half of all people who have the virus don't show symptoms, "so it's critical to wear a mask because you could be carrying the virus and not know it," the CDC said. "While a mask provides some limited protection to the wearer, each additional person who wears a mask increases the individual protection for everyone. When more people wear masks, more people are protected."
Vaccine Proposal
Lynn Bonner, THE NEWS & OBSERVER, 10/16/20
North Carolina is proposing that healthcare workers at high risk of exposure, EMTs, firefighters and other essential workers, and long-term care staff and residents would be in line for the first COVID vaccine doses. That's according to the state's proposal for vaccine distribution sent to the CDC. Friday was the deadline for states to submit the plans. People at high risk of severe illness and death from COVID-19, especially those who work at jobs with a high risk of exposure or living in congregate settings would also be part of Phase 1 of vaccine distribution, when supplies are limited.
The state's goal is to immunize everyone who is eligible and wants to be vaccinated, the plan says. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a 57-page interim playbook last month asking states to make plans for a variety of scenarios. That includes when limited supplies of COVID-19 vaccine are available, when a large number of doses are available, and when there's a surplus. The CDC suggests that healthcare workers, people at-risk of severe illness from COVID-19, and other essential workers be included in the first wave of people to be vaccinated.
North Carolina's 145-page interim plan, prepared by the vaccination planning team, describes four phases of vaccine distribution. It estimates that up to 951,000 people would be in Phase 1. Phase 2 would kick in when both vaccine supply and demand are high and would involve vaccinating up to 1.57 million people. Phase 2 includes teachers and school staff, migrant workers in congregate living arrangements who don't have two or more chronic conditions and incarcerated people. It also includes residents of homeless shelters, and frontline workers, who are relatively healthy, adults 18-64 years old with one chronic condition, and people 65 and older with one or no chronic conditions.
Phase 3, described as the time when there's low demand and plenty of supply, would include up to 767,000 people - workers in critical industries that weren't part of the first two phases, and students. Getting people vaccinated in this phase will look a lot like the seasonal flu campaign, the state plan says. Everyone else, up to 4 million people, would be in Phase 4.
Medicaid Expansion
Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan, THE NEWS & OBSERVER, 10/20/20
The coronavirus pandemic has put a spotlight on an issue that would be part of campaign season in North Carolina anyway: health care. And more specifically, Medicaid expansion. Expanding Medicaid to as many as half a million more North Carolinians was at the center of the 2019 budget battle between Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and the Republican-led state legislature, particularly the Senate. Cooper and other Democrats wanted Medicaid expansion like 39 other states. Republican leadership did not. The Affordable Care Act allows North Carolina to expand Medicaid coverage to about 500,000 residents who do not currently qualify for Medicaid coverage because their income is too high, but too low for affordable private health insurance.
Cooper said that if the legislature becomes majority Democratic after the Nov. 3 election, he wants to sign Medicaid expansion into law as soon as a few weeks into the new legislative session, which starts in January. During the election year's only gubernatorial debate on Oct. 14, Cooper said that "closing the health care coverage gap particularly in the middle of a pandemic, I believe is a moral imperative." Cooper said it is wrong to withhold the potential health care coverage that Medicaid expansion would provide. The federal government would cover most of the cost, and Cooper has proposed having hospitals and health plans pick up the rest.
Forest does not see expansion as a solution. "We need to continue to drive down costs and we need to drive up quality," Forest said this month. "Medicaid is not the way to do that. A one-size-fits-all government program is not the way to do that." Forest said he would also work with the General Assembly and the state treasurer "to ensure more price transparency so citizens know how much prescription drugs and vital health services cost. I'll fight to get those left in the coverage gap created by the ACA on private insurance."
Rent Assistance
NEWS RELEASE, 10/15/20
Gov. Roy Cooper announced Thursday that applications are now being accepted for the N.C. Housing Opportunities and Prevention of Evictions (HOPE) Program, which will assist eligible low- and- moderate-income renters experiencing financial hardship due to COVID-19. The new program seeks to promote housing stability during the ongoing pandemic by providing rent and utility assistance to prevent evictions and utility disconnections. "The spread of coronavirus has affected every aspect of our lives. Many have lost jobs, had work hours cut back or had to care for someone who has become ill with COVID-19," said Cooper. The HOPE Program will provide $117 million for rent and utility assistance for renters who have been affected by the coronavirus pandemic, have a current household income that is 80 percent of the area median income or lower, and are behind on their rent or utilities when they apply.
The HOPE Program is funded by U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Community Development Block Grant−Coronavirus funds and U.S. Department of Treasury Coronavirus Relief funds, which have been provided to North Carolina. The funds are administered by the North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency, a division of the Department of Public Safety, and will be distributed through community partner agencies across the state.
Death Records
NC Watchdog Reporting Network, 10/18/20
Over the next few weeks, North Carolina is set to pilot a new electronic system to register deaths. Only two other states - West Virginia and Rhode Island - still lack such systems, making North Carolina one of the last in the country to modernize its death reporting process. "The biggest change is that instead of it taking somewhere between two and three months to tell you who died in North Carolina last week, I should be able to do that within five to six days," said Delton Atkinson, interim director for the State Center for Health Statistics and project manager for the upgrade.
And in the aggregate, the current paper-based system means data on how people in North Carolina die can languish for months in bureaucratic limbo. That matters to public health experts working to analyze everything from cancer and birth defects to the novel coronavirus in real time. "For some things like tracking long-term trends, it may not make that much of a difference," said Melissa McPheeters, co-director of the Center for Improving the Public's Health through Informatics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. "But when we have situations like COVID or when there are quickly moving crises, like overdoses, you want to get that information as fast as you can."
The pilot, starting Oct. 19, will include eight of the state's most populous counties, including Wake, Durham, Guilford and Mecklenburg. Atkinson said other counties will join in groups of about 20 before the system is fully implemented by summer 2021. The N.C. General Assembly authorized about $2 million for the project - a priority of then-Gov. Pat McCrory - back in 2015, and additional funding comes from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the state's Division of Public Health.
Travel Restrictions
Kate Murphy, THE NEWS & OBSERVER, 10/20/20
With North Carolina's new daily COVID-19 cases among the highest in the nation, some states have set rules such as mandatory quarantines for North Carolina travelers and those visiting the state. North Carolina has a seven-day average of about 2,000 new coronavirus cases daily and is reporting that about 6% of COVID-19 tests taken showed positive results as of Oct. 19. North Carolina does not have any statewide travel restrictions and visitors do not have to quarantine upon arrival. But other states have rules for people coming to or from the state.
New York, New Jersey and Connecticut require North Carolina travelers to quarantine for two weeks upon arrival. The travel advisory began in June and applies to states with "significant rates of transmission of COVID-19," which means they have a positive coronavirus test rate that's higher than 10 per 100,000 people or those with a seven-day rolling average in which at least 10% of tests are positive. This rule does not apply for visitors spending less than 24 hours in the state, according to New Jersey health officials. That list of high-risk states is updated weekly. Visitors must also fill out a travel health form when they arrive.
Illinois identified North Carolina as a state with "higher risk" and asks residents to avoid traveling there and to quarantine for 14 days when they come home, but there's no official mandate. However, Chicago requires a 14-day quarantine for North Carolina visitors traveling to Chicago and for Chicago residents traveling to North Carolina. Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Washington, D.C., Vermont, Rhode Island also classify North Carolina as high risk and have 14-day quarantine periods.
Flu Update
Colin Campbell, THE INSIDER, 10/19/20
A state emergency management committee got an update Friday on plans to combat a flu season that will likely be complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Erica Wilson, an epidemiologist with the Department of Health and Human Services, told the State Emergency Response Commission that state labs will be testing all cases of potential flu and COVID symptoms for both viruses. "There is no way without testing to distinguish between COVID and the flu," she said. So far there's no shortage of available flu vaccines, including a version tailored to older adults, and "everything we do to prevent COVID also prevents the flu."
Wilson's presentation came a day after the state reported its first flu death of the 2020-2021 flu season. But otherwise flu season is off to a slow start, according to a weekly report issued Thursday. The report that that none of the 1,000 tests for flu came back positive, and "the geographic spread of flu had NO ACTIVITY this week."
SSI, Social Security Benefits Will Increase In 2021
People with disabilities receiving Supplemental Security Income and other Social Security benefits will soon see their payments rise.
The Social Security Administration said this week that benefits will increase 1.3 percent in 2021.
The change comes as a result of an annual automatic cost-of-living adjustment, known as COLA, that's tied to inflation. By law, Social Security benefits go up when there is an increase in the Consumer Price Index from the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The higher payments will begin Dec. 31, 2020 for more than 8 million SSI beneficiaries and in January 2021 for over 64 million people across the nation receiving Social Security.
For individuals receiving SSI, the maximum federal payment will grow from $783 per month this year to $794 per month in 2021 with the automatic adjustment. Couples will see $1,191 per month next year, up from $1,175.
Some states kick in additional money for SSI beneficiaries, so actual payments may be higher.
Social Security officials said that beneficiaries are typically notified about their new benefit amount by mail beginning in early December, but most people can view the information in their online Social Security account.
The COLA increase for 2021 is slightly less than last year's adjustment. Benefits rose 1.6 percent in 2020 compared to the previous year.
Video Shows NC Cop Handcuffing, Taunting 7-Year-Old With Autism At School
by Michael Gordon, The Charlotte Observer/TNS
The video from former Statesville Police Officer Michael Fattaleh's body camera shows him rushing across a classroom toward two women who are sitting with a small boy.
"OK, I've got him. He's mine now," Fattaleh says. He takes the 7-year-old, child with autism from the women, handcuffs the boy's arms behind his back and presses him to the floor.
According to the video of the Sept. 11, 2018, incident, the student remains in that position for the next 38 minutes. Sometimes he sits quietly. Other times he sobs in apparent pain or pleads for Fattaleh to let him go.
"I've got all day, dude," the officer says early in the encounter. " ... If you are not acquainted with the juvenile justice system, you will be shortly." The boy's crime? According to a new lawsuit filed by the child's mother, identified as A.G., Fattaleh says he saw the student with special needs spitting in a "quiet room" at the Pressly Alternative School in Statesville.
The officer repeatedly pledged to charge the boy with assault later that day, telling the boy's mother the child had become combative, punching and kicking, behavior that is not apparent during the video. It remains unclear whether the charges were ever filed.
According to Charlotte attorney Alex Heroy, who is representing the boy's mother, Fattaleh inappropriately injected himself into a situation without being summoned by the boy's teachers, then used physical force that caused the child at times to scream out in pain.
"It's one of the worst videos I've ever seen," Heroy told the Observer.
"A school resource officer at a school for special needs students handcuffs and pins a 7-year-old boy to the ground for almost 40 minutes? There is never a need for that, particularly since there was never a threat of harm to anyone. The reported act was that the child spit on the floor. That should never justify this kind of a response to a kid, to a child."
The mother's lawsuit against Fattaleh, the city of Statesville and the Iredell-Statesville Board of Education was filed last week in federal court in Charlotte. It accuses the defendants of constitutional violations, negligence, reckless and negligent infliction of emotional distress, and assault and battery. Fattaleh was put on administrative leave shortly after the incident and later resigned from the Statesville Police Department. His attorney, Ashley Cannon of Statesville, told the Observer that the State Bureau of Investigation conducted an independent probe of the incident, resulting in no criminal charges.
City Attorney J.D. McAllister said much the same in an email, adding: "The Statesville Police Department stresses its commitment to serving the community and our schools and will continue to build trust with the students, parents and staff." The lawsuit adds a new chapter to the country's expanding debate over excessive police force, in this case an officer's physical response to a 4-foot-6, 80-pound boy.
Across the country, police tactics in cases involving adults and young people experiencing emotional crises also have come under increasing scrutiny. Last month, Salt Lake City police shot and seriously wounded a 13-year-old boy with autism who was running away from them. The officer said the boy, who was experiencing an emotional crisis, made threats involving a weapon. There was no indication the boy was armed, according to The Washington Post. "He's a small child," the boy's mother told a local TV station. "Why didn't you just tackle him? He's a baby. He has mental issues."
Iredell County Superior Court Judge Joseph Crosswhite ordered the video released at the request of WSOC-TV reporter Mark Becker, despite the objections of attorneys for the city and the officer. The judge did order that the boy's face be hidden and his voice distorted.
The footage shows in sometimes disturbing detail Fattaleh's interactions with the boy, identified in the lawsuit by the initials L.G.
The child first entered Pressly Alternative that year. According to the lawsuit, the school was aware he struggled with changes in location or activities, had difficulty regulating his emotions and experienced deep anxiety. Sometimes he could be physically or verbally aggressive, according to the lawsuit.That day, the boy had grown agitated by the comings and goings of several students in his class. In response, the boy's special education teacher and behavioral health specialist cleared the classroom and took L.G. to a safe room to quiet down. It was there that the alleged spitting incident occurred.
According to the suit, Fatalleh violated school policy by approaching the child without being asked to intervene by the child's teachers, who never interceded from that point forward.
Sometimes the officer was solicitous of the boy, asking him on several occasions whether he was OK, patting his back, and getting him a pillow where he could rest his head. Other times, Fattaleh's tone turned taunting."Have you ever heard the term 'babysitter'?" the officer said while his knees were pressed into the boy's back forcing him to the floor. "I take that term literally, my friend."
In another exchange, Fattaleh asks the boy whether he's ever been charged with a crime.
"No," L.G. responds.
"Well, you're fixin' to," the officer says.
In another instance cited by the lawsuit that is not clear in the redacted version of the video, the boy cries out in pain when Fattaleh twists his body.
"My knee. My knee. It really hurts," the boy shouts out, according to the suit.
Fattaleh responds, "Yeah, it sucks, doesn't it?"
Another officer at the school eventually removes the handcuffs after the boy's mother arrives. Fattaleh tells the mother that her son will be charged with one or two counts of assault - for spitting, kicking and hitting. "Was this necessary?" the mother said while hugging her son. "How do you charge a special needs child with assault?"
According to the lawsuit, the boy suffered psychological damage from the incident and has been home-schooled since.
