Can Private Companies Help Make It Safer to Fly in the Pandemic Era?
While air travel in the U.S. remains far below pre-pandemic levels, passengers are slowly returning to the skies. Those who choose to fly in the coming weeks and months will find a radically different experience than what they’re used to, with mandatory mask-wearing rules on major airlines, temperature readings at check-in—and a COVID-19 testing station in place of at least one airport-retail stalwart.
Airport spa chain XpresSpa, which has 46 locations across 23 U.S. airports in the U.S., is working to transform at least some of its shuttered locations into coronavirus testing centers, my colleague Raisa Bruner reports. “We thought: is there a way we can reactivate our closed spas to at least temporarily turn them into COVID testing facilities and lend a hand to the efforts?” the company’s CEO, Doug Satzman, told her.
XpresSpa began piloting its first testing program at New York City’s JFK International Airport yesterday, with the goal of processing 500 tests a day. At least for now, it’s not meant to serve passengers—instead, it’s focusing on airport and airline employees, many of whom come into frequent, sustained contact with travelers, which puts them at risk of contracting and spreading the disease.
“As passengers return to the skies—increasing risk of virus spread—those air travel workers are only going to need this even more,” Bruner says. “It's not a short-term solution, but an attempt to provide a sustainable, baseline way to keep an at-risk workforce safe and all kinds of air operations going smoothly, which benefits pretty much everyone.”
The company does not yet know how long it will keep up this pandemic-era pivot, or how expansive the program could become. But Satzman is convinced that the outbreak will change travel in profound, long-term ways. “Just like 9/11 impacted security protocol afterward, this pandemic is going to create some new health safety protocol in travel,” he told Bruner. In the absence of specific rules from the Federal Aviation Administration, it will be up to companies like his, as well as the airlines, to keep flying as safe as possible—especially as the pandemic becomes an increasingly regional phenomenon, which will put a renewed focus on travel in the fight to limit the spread.
More than 9.2 million people around the world had been sickened by COVID-19 as of 11 PM eastern time yesterday, and more than 477,000 people had died.
Here is every country with over 185,000 confirmed cases:
The International Monetary Fund warned today that the global economy is projected to shrink by 4.9% this year as a result of the pandemic. The organization is “now projecting a deeper recession in 2020 and a slower recovery in 2021,” IMF Chief Economist Gita Gopinath said in a blog post. Low-income households could bear the brunt of the slowdown, the IMF says, potentially “imperiling the significant progress made in reducing extreme poverty in the world since the 1990s.”
The World Health Organization is working to address a global shortage of medical oxygen for COVID-19 patients, WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference today. The agency has so far purchased 14,000 oxygen concentrators; they will be sent to 120 countries in the coming weeks. “80% of the market is owned by just a few companies, and demand is currently outstripping supply,” Tedros said.
Meanwhile, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said yesterday that he’s “frustrated” with what he called a “total lack of coordination among countries” in response to the coronavirus. In an interview with the Associated Press, Guterres stressed that global cooperation is vital “not only in fighting the pandemic in a coordinated way but in working together to have the treatments, testing mechanisms, the vaccines…accessible to everybody.”
Human Rights Watch is calling out the East African country of Burundi for “fueling fear and rumors about the spread of the disease,” as the watchdog group put it in a statement today. HRW accused Burundi’s government of “failing to communicate fact-based information” and “preventing doctors and nurses from responding adequately” to the virus. Officially, Burundi has only confirmed 144 cases and 1 death—but experts believe those numbers don’t represent the true scope of the outbreak there.
After much deliberation, Saudi Arabia has all but cancelled this year’s Hajj. Only about 1,000 pilgrims who already live in the kingdom will be allowed to make the holy pilgrimage to Mecca this year, as opposed to the 2.5 million or so from across the world who typically make the journey. The move, which has left many Muslims distraught, comes just one day after Saudi officials announced this year’s Hajj would be “very limited.”
The Situation in the U.S.
More than 2.3 million people in the U.S. had been infected with COVID-19 as of 11 PM eastern time yesterday, and more than 121,000 had died.
On June 22, there were 34,720 new cases and 826 new deaths confirmed in the U.S.
Daily coronavirus cases in the U.S. have hit a two-month high, and could soon eclipse the levels reached during the previous peak of the country’s outbreak. While new cases are decreasing in many of the states that were hardest hit earlier on (like New York and New Jersey), they are rising rapidly in states that generally took fewer precautions and were quicker to reopen (like Texas and Florida).
Leaders in some of those emerging hotspots are taking at least some steps to curb further spread. The governor of Texas—which reported a record number of new cases (nearly 5,100) yesterday—is urging residents to stay home, though the governor of Florida (which hit a new peak at about 4,050 on Saturday) has so far resisted most calls to reverse his reopening plans. (In Texas, some hospital officials are reporting that intensive care units are near or over capacity, while the Texas Children’s Hospital is admitting adult COVID-19 patients to help accommodate the overall increased demand for medical care.)
Residents of states where the coronavirus is spreading most rapidly may soon find it harder to travel across the country: the governors of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut announced today that people from hard-hit areas must quarantine for at least 14 days after arriving in their states.
White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway is defending U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated use of the term “kung flu” to describe COVID-19, a phrase she earlier derided as “highly offensive.” “My reaction is that the President has made very clear he wants everybody to understand—and I think many Americans do understand—that the virus originated in China,” Conway told a reporter today.
Meanwhile, Major League Baseball is set to return in July, with plenty of changes meant to keep players safe: a condensed 60-game season will be played in empty stadiums, teams will primarily play division rivals to reduce travel, and extra innings will begin with runners on second base to cut back on lengthy games.
All numbers unless otherwise specified are from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering, and are accurate as of June 23, 11 PM eastern time. To see larger, interactive versions of these maps and charts, click here.
WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW
Baseball Misread the Pandemic Moment
The MLB’s delay in getting players back on the field had less to do with safety concerns and more to do with millionaires and billionaires squabbling over money. While play is set to resume in July, the league may have missed the moment to give an idle nation some much-needed entertainment. Read more here.
Not Sleeping the Normal Amount? You’re Not Alone
The pandemic is messing with people’s sleep patterns in different ways: some are taking advantage of work-from-home schedules to get more shut-eye, while others are struggling to get a good night’s rest as they deal with depression, loneliness and anxiety. Read more here.
Amsterdam's Red Light District May Not Survive the Pandemic
The lockdown has been crippling for Amsterdam’s red light district, which has long depended on tourist clientele. Now, even as other workplaces reopen—including bars, salons and massage parlors—sex workers remain barred from returning until Sept. 1 at the earliest. Read more here.
An App for Football Fans Could Help With Contact Tracing
An app designed to track the annual migration of football fans from North Dakota to Texas for a big championship game (and meant mostly as a joke) could serve as the backbone of a new coronavirus tracing tool, STAT News reports. Read more here.
Overcrowded South Bronx Households Are Hit Hard By the Coronavirus
Public housing residents in the Bronx—which has the highest rates of coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths of any borough in New York City—are frustrated with testing delays as well as a lack of personal protective equipment, the New York Times reports. Read more here.
Thanks for reading. We hope you find the Coronavirus Brief newsletter to be a helpful tool to navigate this very complex situation, and welcome feedback at coronavirus.brief@time.com.
If you were forwarded this and want to sign up to receive it daily, click here.
Today's newsletter was written by Sanya Mansoor and edited by Alex Fitzpatrick.
沒有留言:
張貼留言