Michigan reports 2,066 new coronavirus cases, 8 new deaths for Sunday and Monday, Jan. 31-Feb. 1 - MLive.com

The state health department reported a two-day total of 2,066 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and eight new deaths on Monday, Feb. 1.

Michigan’s Department of Health and Human Services doesn’t report coronavirus data on Sundays, and instead reports two-day totals on Monday.

Health officials recommend looking at seven-day averages to track trends throughout the pandemic. Over the last week, Michigan has averaged 1,166 cases and 39 deaths per day.

The state’s latest daily case average is the lowest its been since Oct. 12, while daily deaths average is the lowest since Nov. 7. Two weeks ago, the health department was reporting 2,108 cases and 60 deaths per day.

(The above chart shows Michigan’s 7-day rolling average of new confirmed coronavirus cases. You can put your cursor over a bar to see the number. You also can click on the option just below the headline to see the actual number of new cases reported by day.)

Seventy-one counties reported at least one new case Monday, while eight counties reported at least one new death.

Wayne County added 333 cases, while Oakland had 235, Kent had 170, Macomb had 154, Washtenaw had 130, and Ingham had 102.

Macomb and Washtenaw counties each had two new deaths, while Calhoun, Monroe, Bay, Manistee, Houghton and Iron counties each reported one new death. Wayne County had three deaths removed from its cumulative total, which generally means there was a recent correction.

(The above chart shows Michigan’s 7-day rolling average of deaths involving confirmed coronavirus cases. You can put your cursor over a bar to see the number. You also can click on the option just below the headline to see the actual number of new deaths reported by day.)

Hospitals across the state were treating 1,409 patients with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 on Monday, down from 1,479 such patients on Friday and 1,647 a week ago.

As is typically the case over the weekend, Sunday’s test total was below average. Of the 23,624 tests processed, 6.15% came back positive for coronavirus -- the highest rate in six days.

Case reporting

First is a chart showing new cases reported to the state each day for the past 30 days. This is based on when a confirmed coronavirus test is reported to the state, which means the patient first became sick days before.

You can call up a chart for any county, and you can put your cursor over a bar to see the date and number of cases.

(In a few instances, a county reported a negative number (decline) in daily new cases, following a retroactive reclassification by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. In those instances, we subtracted cases from the prior date and put 0 in the reported date.)

The next chart below shows new cases for the past 30 days based on onset of symptoms. In this chart, numbers for the most recent days are incomplete because of the lag time between people getting sick and getting a confirmed coronavirus test result, which can take up to a week or more.

You can call up a chart for any county, and you can put your cursor over a bar to see the date and number of cases.

For more statewide data, visit MLive’s coronavirus data page, here.

To find a testing site near you, check out the state’s online test finder, here, send an email to COVID19@michigan.gov, or call 888-535-6136 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. on weekdays.

Read more on MLive:

Restaurants reopen today for indoor dining – here are Michigan’s new rules

Unemployment login page down as Michigan expands eligibility

Monday, Feb. 1, coronavirus data by Michigan county: Oakland, Washtenaw, Genesee, Bay below 5% positivity rate

Single-dose COVID-19 vaccine could be 85% effective, available next month

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Facebook makes the case for activity tracking to iOS 14 users in new pop-ups - Ars Technica

Enlarge / The two messages Facebook users will see in this test. On the left, Facebook's prompt, and on the right, the one required by Apple.

CNBC

Today, Facebook began testing prompts to iPhone and iPad users championing the importance of being tracked by the social network for the benefit of small businesses that use its advertising tools.

The test is in response to Apple's plan to require user opt-in to IDFA (ID for advertisers) tracking across all iOS, iPadOS, and tvOS apps starting with new software updates expected in the spring.

According to CNBC, Facebook will pre-empt Apple's required pop-up with its own on affected devices. Facebook's message is meant to persuade users not to opt out of tracking.

Apple had already announced that, with the upcoming software releases, apps that use IDFAs to track users across apps and websites will have to show a pop-up that says, for example, "Facebook would like permission to track you across apps and websites owned by other companies."

That prompt will also be presented with a short blurb from the app-maker to make the case right within this confirmation box (Facebook is going with "This allows Facebook to provide you with a better ads experience"). This is followed by two choices: "Ask App Not to Track" and "Allow Tracking."

The Facebook app on iOS and iPadOS will serve up this required dialogue box, but Facebook is testing another message that will appear even before users see that one. In the copy obtained by CNBC, it reads:

Allow Facebook to use your app and website activity?

• Get ads that are more personalized
• Support businesses that rely on ads to reach customers

To provide a better ads experience, we need permission to use future activity that other apps and websites send us from this device. This won't give us access to new types of information.

The example language we have here may not be final, and Facebook may be testing multiple versions of the message to determine which approaches are most effective at keeping users opted in to tracking.

Facebook previously bought a full-page newspaper ad with similar messaging, making the case that the change would be particularly negative for local businesses as they struggle during the pandemic. "Beyond hurting apps and websites, many in the small business community say this change will be devastating for them too, at a time when they face enormous challenges," it read. "Small businesses deserve to be heard. We're standing up to Apple for our small business customers and our communities."

Last week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told investors on the company's quarterly earnings call that they should soon expect reduced advertising revenues from the company as a result of Apple's change in policy, because many if not most users will opt out when presented with the choice. He also claimed that Apple's move to require opt-in from users for IDFA tracking is one of many examples of Apple engaging in anticompetitive and monopolistic practices.

That same week, a report was published in The Information that detailed Facebook's plan to file an antitrust lawsuit against Apple over this issue, as well as alleged preferential status Apple gives to its iMessage platform (a competitor to Facebook Messenger and Facebook-owned WhatsApp) on iOS and iPadOS.

Also that same week, Apple CEO Tim Cook delivered a keynote address at a Brussels data-privacy conference in which he alleged that companies like Facebook are "built on misleading users, on data exploitation, on choices that are no choices at all," and that business models like Facebook's bear a cost of "polarization, of lost trust and, yes, of violence."

Apple plans to begin requiring the opt-in notification in all apps that use IDFAs sometime this spring, and Facebook plans to honor iOS and iPadOS users' choices once they've been made—at least, as long as Apple's policy doesn't get overturned in a brewing storm of antitrust complaints.

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Biden could change course in Supreme Court health care case - The Columbian

WASHINGTON — The pending Supreme Court case on the fate of the Affordable Care Act could give the Biden administration its first opportunity to chart a new course in front of the justices.

The health care case, argued a week after the election in November, is one of several matters, along with immigration and a separate case on Medicaid work requirements, where the new administration could take a different position from the Trump administration at the high court.

While a shift would be in line with President Joe Biden’s political preferences, it could prompt consternation at the court. Justices and former officials in Democratic and Republican administrations routinely caution that new administrations should generally be reluctant to change positions before the court.

Justice Elena Kagan, who as solicitor general was the top Supreme Court lawyer for President Barack Obama before he appointed her to the court, said in a 2018 forum that the bar should be high.

“I think changing positions is a really big deal that people should hesitate a long time over, which is not to say that it never happens,” Kagan said at the time. Indeed, Trump’s Justice Department made a switch four times in the first full high court term of the administration.

Still, the health care case is a good candidate for when a rare change of position may be warranted, said Paul Clement, who was solicitor general under President George W. Bush.

The Justice Department defends federal laws at the Supreme Court “whenever reasonable arguments can be made,” Clement said at an online Georgetown University forum.

The Trump administration called on the justices to strike down the entire Obama-era law under which some 23 million people get health insurance and millions more with preexisting health conditions are protected from discrimination.

Biden was vice president when the law was enacted, famously calling it a “big (expletive) deal” the day Obama signed it into law in 2010.

As president, Biden has called for strengthening the law, and he already has reopened sign-ups for people who might have lost their jobs and the health insurance that goes with them because of the coronavirus pandemic.

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In the health care case, the court could rule that the now-toothless requirement that people obtain insurance or pay a penalty is unconstitutional and leave the rest of the law alone. That outcome, rather than taking down the whole law, seemed a likely one based on the justices’ questions and comments in November.

The Justice Department could simply file a new legal brief saying that its views have changed, former acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal, also an Obama administration veteran, said at the same Georgetown event. A second court hearing is unlikely.

Clement agreed. “I think the justices would welcome it,” he said. “I also think it’s an incredibly strong position.”

But Clement cautioned that the new acting solicitor general, Elizabeth Prelogar, will have to pick her spots before the justices, three of whom were appointed by President Donald Trump. “The Biden administration is going to have to realize they’re making arguments to a reasonably conservative court,” he said.

Orders issued by Biden in the first week of his presidency also may affect two cases scheduled for argument next month over controversial Trump administration policies involving immigrants.

In one case, Trump was unhappy with the money Congress allotted for construction of a wall along the Mexican border. Trump declared a national emergency and identified nearly $7 billion appropriated for other purposes to use instead to build sections of the wall.

The case before the Supreme Court involves $2.5 billion in Defense Department funds. Lower courts have ruled that what Trump did probably is illegal, but the Supreme Court allowed work on the wall to continue while the case made its way through the legal system.

Much of the money has already been spent and Biden rescinded the emergency on his first day in office. The Justice Department could tell the court that there is nothing left for it to decide.

The same might be true of the legal challenge to the Trump policy that forced asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico for U.S. court hearings. Biden has suspended the policy for new arrivals.

“It does look like the case could be moot, but we’re waiting to hear from the acting solicitor general about what they want to do. Obviously, it’s a welcome change in policy,” said Judy Rabinovitz, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, which is challenging the policy.

A dispute over waivers the Trump administration granted states to impose work requirements on people who receive their health care through the Medicaid program also could be affected.

Biden on Thursday directed the Health and Human Services Department to review the waivers, but it’s not clear how quickly the administration could act to undo them and whether changes could derail the Supreme Court case.

The waivers were struck down in lower courts, and the states appealed. By early December, the justices knew a new administration would be in place by the time they heard the case, but they decided to take it on anyway.

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The Case for Compromise on Covid Relief - Bloomberg

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Campus coronavirus roundup, 2.1.21: Case numbers drop on most campuses - Idaho EdNews

Coronavirus case numbers dropped on all four of the state’s four-year campuses.

Only two schools reported slight increases in cases.

The slowdown in case numbers coincided with an increase in enrollment on at least one private school campus. Nampa’s Northwest Nazarene University announced a spring enrollment of 1,912 students, its highest figure in several years. “To experience growth during a pandemic is rare among universities,” said Mark Cork, NNU’s associate vice president of marketing and communications.

Here’s this week’s campus coronavirus case roundup.

Increasing

College of Southern Idaho. CSI reported five cases for the week ending Thursday, up from three cases the previous week. All five cases involve students, including three on the Twin Falls campus.

The College of Idaho. Four new positive tests reported last week, compared to three cases the previous week. One person is in campus isolation housing, while three people are isolating off-campus. For the school year, C of I has reported 99 positive test results.

Decreasing

Boise State University. Decreases in two key metrics.

Forty-five campus cases for the seven-day period ending Thursday, down from 75 cases the previous week. Thirty-one cases involved students who live off campus, six involved students living on campus, and eight cases involved faculty and staff.

In all, 2.6 percent of campus coronavirus tests came back positive, up from 2.2 percent the previous week.

Twelve of Boise State’s 153 isolation beds were occupied, down from 15 the previous week.

Idaho State University. Thirty-three cases for a seven-day period ending Tuesday, a significant dropoff from 71 cases the previous week. In all, 23 cases involve students, and 30 occurred on the Pocatello campus. ISU was investigating two case clusters, both connected to off-campus households.

University of Idaho. A sharp dropoff in cases: The U of I reported 14 positive test results for the week ending Jan. 22, down from 61 positive test results the previous week.

The university’s positive test rate remained at 1.8 percent.

In a memo last week, President C. Scott Green and Provost Torrey Lawrence said student who do not get tested could face limits on campus access. “Their lack of testing puts people around them at risk, so it is important for us to take this requirement seriously.”

Lewis-Clark State College. Five cases were active as of Friday, down from seven cases the previous week. Two of the active cases involve students, three involve faculty or staff. Two students were in isolation.

North Idaho College. Two students and one employee self-reported a positive test last week, compared to 10 self-reported cases the previous week. Since July, 275 students and employees have reported a positive test.

College of Eastern Idaho. Two cases reported last week, both involving students. CEI reported four cases the previous week, and has reported a total of 158 cases since August.

Northwest Nazarene University. NNU reported just one case last week, involving an employee. NNU reported four cases the previous week. Twenty-two people are under stay-at-home directives, and NNU is tracking three active cases.

Other

BYU-Idaho. No updates. On Jan. 24, BYU-Idaho reported 24 active student cases and two active cases involving employees.

College of Western Idaho. CWI reported three new confirmed cases last week, in addition to one probable case and one suspected case. CWI reported 11 cases for the month of January.

Check Kevin Richert’s blog each Friday for a weekly roundup of statewide coronavirus trends.

About Kevin Richert

Senior reporter and blogger Kevin Richert specializes in education politics and education policy. He has more than 30 years of experience in Idaho journalism. He is a frequent guest on KIVI 6 On Your Side; "Idaho Reports" on Idaho Public Television; and "Idaho Matters" on Boise State Public Radio. Follow Kevin on Twitter: @KevinRichert. He can be reached at [email protected]

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It’s Been One Year Since The First COVID-19 Case In Massachusetts - CBS Boston

BOSTON (CBS) — February 1 marks the first anniversary of the first coronavirus case in Massachusetts. Since then, more than 498,000 people have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and more than 14,000 people have died from the virus in the state.

Here is a look at what has happened in Massachusetts over the past year due to the COVID-19 pandemic:

Feb. 1, 2020: A man returning to Boston from Wuhan, China tests positive for COVID-19. The man, who is in his 20s, studies at UMass Boston. and sought medical attention when he felt sick shortly after arriving at Logan Airport. This case is the eighth in the country.

Feb. 26-27, 2020: Biogen holds an international business conference at the Long Wharf Marriott in Boston. It is later determined that this conference can be connected to between 205,000 and 300,000 coronavirus cases. A study estimates the conference is responsible for about 1.6% of all coronavirus cases in the United States.

The Marriot Long Wharf Hotel in Boston. (Photo by JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images)

March 15, 2020: Gov. Charlie Baker orders all Massachusetts schools to close, restaurants to only serve take-out or delivery, and prohibits gatherings of groups larger than 25. The order was initially set to end on April 7. At this point, there are currently 164 coronavirus cases in the state.

March 23, 2020: Gov. Charlie Baker orders all non-essential businesses to close and advises all residents to stay at home and avoid unnecessary travel. At this point, there are 646 cases of coronavirus in the state.

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Nov. 12, 2020: Confirmed COVID-19 deaths in Massachusetts surpass 10,000.

Dec. 11, 2020: The U.S. gives the final go-ahead to the nation’s first COVID-19 vaccine made by Pfizer. In a study of nearly 44,000 people, the FDA found the vaccine was safe and more than 90% effective across recipients of different ages, races, and those with health problems.

Dec. 18, 2020: The FDA gives Cambridge-based Moderna emergency use authorization of its COVID-19 vaccine. Moderna’s shot provided 94% protection against COVID-19 in the Cambridge company’s ongoing study of 30,000 people.

Jan. 21, 2021: A COVID-19 variant, known to be more contagious and potentially more deadly, from the United Kingdom was found in Massachusetts for the first time.

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Two million Australians in lockdown after one coronavirus case found - Reuters

By Colin Packham

3 Min Read

CANBERRA (Reuters) - About 2 million Australians begun their first full day of a strict coronavirus lockdown on Monday following the discovery of one case in the community in Perth, capital of Western Australia state, but no new cases have since been found.

Slideshow ( 2 images )

Authorities ordered a five-day lockdown of Perth after a security guard at a hotel used to quarantine people returning from overseas was found to have contracted the virus.

The state government said 66 people have been deemed close contacts of the unidentified guard and none of those already tested were infected.

“In total 13 close contacts have now tested negative and of those 11 high-risk contacts have been moved into hotel quarantine as an extra precaution,” Western Australia state Premier Mark McGowan told reporters in Perth.

Tests on the rest of the close contacts were expected to be completed on Monday, McGowan said.

Australia has managed to largely contain its novel coronavirus epidemic - limiting cases to nearly 29,000 and deaths to 909 - with the sort of decisive action seen in Perth, and tight border controls.

A vaccine campaign is due to begin this month, which Prime Minister Scott Morrison said would cost at least A$6.3 billion ($4.8 billion).

Australia had already pledged to spend A$4.4 billion to acquire enough doses for its 26 million population, but Morrison said his government had set aside a further A$1.9 billion to pay for the roll-out.

“The strategy is backed by an initial allocation of around A$1.9 billion in new support for the vaccine roll-out. This is on top of more than $4.4 billion allocated for vaccines purchases,” Morrison said in a speech in Canberra.

Classifying the inoculation programme as his “first priority”, Morrison said the economy must now begin to wean itself off government spending.

Australia has pledged more than A$250 billion in stimulus, which has already begun to taper.

But Morrison said there was a limit to the support government could afford.

“We are not running a blank cheque budget,” Morrison said.

Reporting by Colin Packham; Editing by Gerry Doyle, Robert Birsel

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