Chicago Tribune (September 24)
“Many employers pushed Labor Day return to office plans back as the delta variant fueled a resurgence in COVID-19 cases—another setback for businesses catering to the Loop’s formerly bustling office crowd. While businesses like coffee and shoe repair shops are optimistic their customers will eventually return, they may be downtown less often and may need time to rebuild old habits.”
Tags: COVID-19, Customers, Delta variant, Downtown, Employers, Labor Day, Loop, Office, Old habits, Resurgence, Return, Setback, Shops
Wall Street Journal (September 16)
“Transportation costs—typically a fraction of a finished product’s price—are emerging as another supply-chain hurdle, overwhelming some companies already paying more for raw materials and labor…. The Covid-19 pandemic has driven a long-lasting surge in transportation costs, putting pressure on many businesses already confronting higher wages and raw-material prices. Some CEOs are saying they expect elevated freight costs stretching into 2023.”
Tags: COVID-19, Hurdle, Labor, Overwhelming, Pandemic, Pressure, Product price, Raw materials, Supply chain, Surge, Transportation, Wages
Market Watch (September 16)
“The U.S. passed another grim milestone in the coronavirus pandemic on Thursday, when the number of fatalities from COVID-19 passed 666,000, meaning that about 1 in every 500 people living in America has died of the illness.” And with just under 2,000 deaths from COVID a day, “the U.S. is suffering more deaths every two days than in the terrorist attacks of Sept 11, 2001.”
Tags: Coronavirus, COVID-19, Deaths, Fatalities, Grim, Milestone, Pandemic, Sept. 11, Terrorist attacks, U.S.
The Times (September 14)
“Only 0.5 per cent of Covid-19 deaths in the first six months of the year followed ‘breakthrough infections’ in fully vaccinated people, figures show…. The Office for National Statistics said only 256 out of 51,281 coronavirus deaths appeared to be true “breakthrough” infections, in which people tested positive at least a fortnight after their second dose.”
Tags: Breakthrough infections, COVID-19, Deaths, Fully vaccinated, Positive, Second dose, Statistics, Tested
South China Morning Post (September 13)
“Even as they struggle with one of the world’s worst Covid-19 outbreaks, nations across Southeast Asia are slowly realising that they can no longer afford the economy-crippling restrictions needed to squash it…. Regulators are pushing forward with plans to reopen, seeking to balance containing the virus with keeping people and money moving.”
Tags: Afford, Balance, COVID-19, Crippling, Economy, Outbreaks, Regulators, Reopen, Restrictions, Southeast Asia, Struggle, Virus
Tampa Bay Times (September 7)
“For weeks, the virus preyed on America’s illusion of a defanged Covid. Most people returned to a semblance of their former lives.” Then, harsh reality set in. “The fast-spreading Delta variant has flooded hospitals across the South. It’s killed more people in Florida and Louisiana than the darkest days of the pandemic winter, and left so many COVID-19 patients gasping for breath that some places face shortages of medical oxygen.”
Tags: COVID-19, Defanged, Delta, Fast-spreading, Florida, Gasping, Hospitals, Illusion, Louisiana, Oxygen, Pandemic, Patients, Reality, Shortages, Virus
USA Today (August 20)
“From the earliest days of the pandemic, public health officials told Americans that vaccination was the way back to normal life, but the path forward has become less clear. While COVID-19 vaccines were delivered in record time, the promise of vaccine salvation was upended by entrenched hesitancy, waning immunity and a wildly contagious mutation of the enigmatic virus that causes the disease.”
Tags: COVID-19, Hesitancy, Immunity, Normal, Officials, Pandemic, Promise, Public health, U.S., Upended, Vaccination, Vaccine salvation
Houston Chronicle (August 4)
COVID-19 is striking Texas with a vengeance. Every region is expected to “face surges larger than anything seen so far.” The Houston area is expected to break the hospitalization record on Sunday and “the previous record for ICU patients—947 set July 18, 2020—is predicted to be broken Aug. 15.” But “even more alarming,” the surge will “keep climbing sharply,” with 2,000 ICU patients expected at the end of August.
Tags: COVID-19, Hospitalization, Houston, ICU patients, Record, Surge, Texas, Vengeance
Reuters (August 1)
“As competitors battled for the podium on the third day of Olympic athletics on Sunday, it was Tokyo’s oppressive heat that perhaps dished out the most pain. Punishing conditions greeted athletes and officials as a trackside thermometer touched 40 degrees Celsius (104°F) and the humidity hovered around 60%, with sun beating down on an Olympic Stadium devoid of spectators due to COVID-19.”
Tags: 40 degrees Celsius, Athletes, Battled, Competitors, Conditions, COVID-19, Heat, Humidity, Officials, Olympics, Oppressive, Pain, Podium, Punishing, Spectators, Sun, Tokyo, Trackside
Houston Chronicle (July 27)
“The fourth COVID-19 wave is like a sequel to a movie that no one ever wanted to watch in the first place…. Last week, the number of lab-confirmed COVID-19 hospitalizations statewide broke 4,000 for the first time since March” while Greater Houston is seeing over 1,000 people “testing positive per day…more than seven times last month’s daily average.”
Tags: COVID-19, Daily average, Fourth wave, Hospitalizations, Houston, Lab-confirmed, Positive, Sequel, Testing
