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DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - The Dallas County health department has reported its first locally transmitted case of the monkeypox virus after a man who attended the Daddyland Festival tested positive. He traveled from out-of-state for the four-day, Fourth of July circuit party. Health officials said the man went to a Dallas hospital with a rash and was diagnosed through laboratory testing done. Given the size of the Daddyland Festival, others who attended the events could have been exposed to monkeypox and, possibly, infected.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Feb. 25 drastically changed a key measure that is used by officials across the country to determine whether or not to require mask-wearing. The federal agency now says nearly three-quarters of Americans don’t need to wear masks because they live in areas with low or medium community risk from COVID-19. The dramatic switch comes because the CDC switched from only using COVID-19 cases as a factor and are taking into account other metrics, including hospitalizations. “This updated approach focuses on directing our prevention efforts toward protecting people at high risk for...

In the face of today’s global health pandemic, we are experiencing a time of tremendous uncertainty. As the former CEO of a molecular diagnostic laboratory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, I believe advanced diagnostic technologies are ready to address the challenges we face. Today, Germany is testing between 360,000 to 500,000 citizens for viral infection weekly — tracking the spread of the coronavirus early. This enables self-quarantine for those who test positive and allows healthy individuals to move back to society. The German Health Ministry is investing 500 million euros to create a database to link hospitals with labs to provide information....

For now, social distancing is the best America can do to contain the Covid-19 pandemic. But if the U.S. truly mobilizes, it can soon deploy better weapons—advanced tests—that will allow the country to shift gradually to a protocol less disruptive and more effective than a lockdown. Instead of ricocheting between an unsustainable shutdown and a dangerous, uncertain return to normalcy, the U.S. could mount a sustainable strategy with better tests and maintain a stable course for as long as it takes to develop a vaccine or cure. The country will once more be able to plan for the future, get...

Health experts from the National Academy of Sciences reportedly told the White House on Wednesday that limited research shows aerosolized droplets produced by talking or simply breathing may spread the novel coronavirus.

Coronavirus Cases: 14,340 Deaths: 217 Recovered: 125 ACTIVE CASES 13,998 Currently Infected Patients 13,934 (100%) in Mild Condition 64 (0%) Serious or Critical

A man in his 50s from Fond du Lac County and a man in his 90s from Ozaukee County both have died from COVID-19, Gov. Tony Evers announced Thursday

The state's temporary limit on size of gatherings violates the First Amendments "Assemble Peaceably" clause. The limit on size of gatherings for religious groups violates the First Amendments "Free Exercise" clause. There is no pandemic exception to the First Amendment in the United State Constitution. People should have the freedom to choose rather or not to go to a gathering. Many of us would rather take risks that make us happy, rather than live sad because many people are scared of COVID-19. We believe that states which do not follow the United States Constitution bring confusion. Not all states have...

Is it time to panic? NO. This document is trying to help you to understand the situation at hand and not to terrify you. We want to make sure you understand the facts and understand what is at stake. This is a Pearl Harbor moment for our country. We are facing a real threat and we need to face it with all of our resources. When people decry the seriousness of this moment they are steering our country off a cliff, we need everyone to understand that this is important and if we work together to slow the spread we...

Rome (CNN)Italy is entering its fourth week of the worst national crisis since World War II with no end in sight. More than 60 million people are living under an increasingly unbearable lockdown that is growing tighter by the day. The stores that remain open are shuttering earlier and police are patrolling in ever-greater numbers, chasing families out for walks back into their homes and ensuring no one is outside without a valid reason. Even so, the number of novel coronavirus cases in the country is rising at a rate of around 3,500 new cases or more every day, and...

Italy reported 475 deaths from the coronavirus in one day, its civil-protection agency said on Wednesday. That's the highest death toll reported in one day by any country since the coronavirus outbreak originated in Wuhan, China, late last year. Even at the height of China's outbreak, its highest single-day death toll was 150, on February 23. Iran and Spain, both struggling with large outbreaks, have not recorded more than 200 deaths in a single day. As of Wednesday, the coronavirus had infected more than 35,700 people and killed nearly 3,000 people in Italy.

While most U.S. airlines are cutting flights to historically low numbers because of the coronavirus pandemic, three mainland Chinese carriers plan to resume non-stop flights to San Francisco International Airport this month, a move SFO officials said “marks a hopeful change in direction.” The resumption of flights is one of several early signs that the worst could be over in China, meaning the crisis will eventually come to an end here, too. China Eastern will resume a daily non-stop flight this month between its hub in Shanghai and San Francisco using a Boeing 777-300ER jet. Flights are expected to start...

A county in Colorado issued a shelter-in-place order Wednesday in an effort to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus outbreak. San Miguel County’s shelter in place order will be in effect until at least April 3 at the discretion of the public health director, according to the county’s announcement. As part of its mitigation plan, San Miguel officials will also test the entire county for COVID-19. The testing will be offered free of charge and will be administered by the county public health department. “We know just testing is not enough to fight this virus. If we invest in the...

Day #19 here: http://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3825446/posts?q=1&;page=1

Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak ordered all nonessential businesses in Nevada to close. Casinos and gaming operations are included in the order, to be closed by midnight Tuesday. This includes every casino and gaming operation in the state of Nevada.

This website is actually counting real-time, the total of cases (and other stats) by web scraping. Two days ago they seem to have been lagging behind another website - https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ But now it seems the ncov2010.live website is leading. The total just passed 200,000.

A new Harvard analysis shows that many parts of the United States will have far too few hospital beds if the new coronavirus continues to spread widely and if nothing is done to expand capacity. In 40 percent of markets around the country, hospitals would not be able to make enough room for all the patients who became ill with Covid-19, even if they could empty their beds of other patients. That statistic assumes that 40 percent of adults become infected with the virus over 12 months, a scenario described as “moderate” by the team behind the calculations. Yet the...

Enough with all the Corona Virus posts. We get the picture already and FreeRepublic has turned into Corona Virus terror central. Other things are happening we need to know about!

New York officials say the state’s coronavirus total has jumped to 1,700, with at least 19% hospitalized. They said the number of cases will continue to rise as the state receives more test results. New York has 53,000 hospital beds and 3,000 ICU beds, far short of what state health officials are predicting will be needed, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said.

I have spent the last several days like most Americans somewhat baffled, perplexed and even a little nervous at the rapidly unfolding events as to CoVID-19. The community seems to have been divided into two groups, those who are advocating that there is nothing more than the common flu here and that there is vast overreaction, and those that advocate that this is a serious illness that for the safety of all requires drastic measures in order to prevent mass death and tragedy. If one looks closely, it is possible to find everything from death rates calculated at 0.1% -...