On March 17, 2020, the Rhode Island Department of Health notified Dr. Neal Rogol that he, like countless other small business owners in the state, was to close. “It was an enforced vacation that wasn’t a vacation,” said Rogol, a family dentist whose office is at 24 Salt Pond Road in South Kingstown.

Dentistry has always been at the forefront of infection control, according to Rogol. Viruses that have beset civilization in recent decades have forced medical professionals to wear more personal protective equipment – ​​such as gloves, scrubs or some other barrier to cover clothing and masks, it has therefore felt the changes that COVID-19 would herald. When her practice reopened in late May 2020, the Rhode Island Dental Association asked all dentists to wear “a heavier filtration mask,” and she distributed them to dentists for emergency use.

“The dental association really came to bat,” Rogol said. “The association has distributed hand sanitizers for all offices, a number of high filtration masks and disposable gowns. We have implemented the use of N95 masks, which have the highest possible filtration rate. Rogol also procured face shields because, he explained, “when you use drills, you create aerosols, and the coronavirus spreads through aerosols or droplets.”

There were also equipment that dentists were instructed not to use, such as the ultrasonic cleaner, which is used to clean heavy deposits of hardened tartar, known in his profession as “tartar”. These machines also produce aerosols. Rogol hygienists had to perform ‘manual descaling’ until restrictions were eased; they became more knowledgeable about the virus and people were vaccinated. “At one point, many offices weren’t even doing any cleaning,” Rogol said. “We weren’t even polishing.”

Gradually, the dentists started polishing and started using the ultrasonic cleaner again when the Centers for Disease Control gave them permission to “do whatever we wanted to do,” according to Rogol. Currently, Rogol’s office is a bulwark against the disease. All surfaces are cleaned with an antiviral barrier based on hydrogen peroxide. At a cost of around $5,000, Rogol purchased two air filtration machines, which use pure active technology, and three “extra-oral evacuation” (outside of the mouth) machines that evacuate aerosols and contain three layers of filtration.

Rising inflation and the supply chain crisis have made N95 masks both more expensive and difficult to buy. “Hospitals told their staff they had to use the same masks over and over again, but I didn’t want to, so I stockpiled as many as I could.” Initially, he also took the advice to put masks in sealed Tupperware containers until masks became more readily available. The gloves, which Rogol said once cost $6.99 a box, have soared to $24.99 a box. They came back at a reasonable price of $8.99 a box, but the upfront expense was significant.

Rogol also took other precautions, including limiting the number of patients who could sit in the waiting room. At one point, some of his patients had the option of waiting in their car to be called in turn. “We still require all patients to wear masks in the office until they sit in the chair. It’s very controversial because the state lifted the restrictions, but in a health care setting, masks are appropriate,” Rogol said. “We screen all staff and take the temperature of all patients when they arrive. We make sure they are healthy and have not knowingly been exposed to anyone with a virus.”

Part of this screening process involves patients filling out a COVID questionnaire, and all patients, prior to treatment, must rinse their mouth with hydrogen peroxide solution. “We try to protect everyone, and patients understand and appreciate that.”

Rogol says things may never be the same as before the pandemic.

“I don’t know if it will be a day like before,” he said. “I still have patients who don’t come if they don’t feel any discomfort or pain. The phobia of the virus sometimes outweighs the need for preventive care. Dental care is linked to overall good health, so maintaining good health is more important than ever.

Stephanie White, owner of Optimal Wellness Therapeutic Massage at 24 Salt Pond Road, has been a massage therapist for 10 years, and the trials and tribulations of being a small business owner have never been more pronounced than they have been. been the last two. In March 2020, as COVID-19 spread rapidly, she was forced to shut down her business for four months, which put her and her family in dire economic straits.

She had no income for a few weeks until she became eligible for pandemic unemployment insurance, which she estimated covered about 70% of the income she was receiving at the time. pre-COVID. In the meantime, White said: “I still had overhead and we had to give up a lot of bills at home. One was the mortgage payment. You spend 10 years building a business, and then all of a sudden…”

White’s business expenses were also piling up. “The majority of people who work in this industry (massage therapy) are independent contractors, so we were not eligible to receive PPE (personal protective equipment) as (Internal Revenue Service form) 1099 employees. ” White explained. When the Rhode Island Department of Health informed White on the last day of May 2020 that it could reopen in June, she and her staff were unprepared. “We couldn’t open right away because we had to buy the things we needed. We had to buy all kinds of air filters, and we had to follow all kinds of cleaning protocols and have different types of equipment to be compliant,” White explained.

She was able to reopen Optimal Wellness on July 1, but she and other therapists have had to get used to the post-COVID adjustments the virus has forced on all sectors of society. “We had to take fewer customers because we needed more time to clean; additionally, we had to screen all of our customers to make sure everyone was healthy and following the rules,” she said. “And laundry is more expensive, cleaners, air filters, all the equipment is more expensive. We now employ professional cleaners instead of doing our own cleaning.

White herself caught COVID in November 2020, but credits her protocols for ensuring that none of her clients reported falling ill.

“Someone in my family tested positive, so I got tested immediately,” White said. “I was at work because I didn’t know I was HIV positive. I called every client I had seen that week, and not a single person got sick, as we followed all the protocols. After that a lot of people didn’t want to come in because I got COVID. It made me feel more comfortable with the precautions I was using because not a single person ended up getting it.

“That was probably the worst thing, telling people they were exposed,” White added. “I called everyone for the week, maybe fifteen people. We followed strict protocols and obviously it paid off.

Stricter protocols and mitigations followed as the Omicron variant began to spread. In October 2021, the Department of Health required anyone licensed with its agency to be vaccinated. Two of its employees refused to comply, so Optimal Wellness has only three massage therapists left.

While the Omicron variant appears to have peaked and Governor Dan McKee has relaxed his masking and vaccination mandates, White is more optimistic about the future. “I think people are more comfortable doing a one-on-one activity rather than being in a large crowd,” she said. “Everyone has done well not to come when they are not feeling well. One week we had 10 cancellations from people feeling unwell or testing positive, but lately we’ve been in a good phase. We have had no cancellations in the past two weeks. The problem is having to pivot with all the different changes. The cost of everything is going up, and you look around and see all these other businesses closing. It’s just exhausting having to keep up. »

Contact tracing is no longer an effective tool in the province’s fight against surging cases of the Omicron variant coronavirus, BC’s top health official says.

The province has adapted its strategy to prevent transmission of the highly infectious strain of COVID-19, Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry told reporters during a press briefing Friday morning, January 21.

And while contact tracing has been an effective mechanism for public health intervention in the past, Henry noted that it’s an increasingly difficult process due to the infectious variant.

“The features of the disease that make contact tracing effective are things like having a longer incubation period because you need time to find people after someone has been tested,” he said. she explained, pointing out that the Omicron variant has a considerably shorter incubation period.

As strains of COVID-19 “become more infectious,” it’s harder to find people through contact tracing, Henry added.

A disease like measles, on the other hand, has an incubation period of two to three weeks. The health official said contact tracing for diseases with longer incubation periods like this allows time to identify and reach a high proportion of contacts and take action to prevent the spread. spread of the virus.

Earlier in the pandemic, people infected with the Delta variant typically had an incubation period of five to seven days, Henry noted. This period allowed public health teams to locate individuals and prevent them from transmitting the virus to others before they developed symptoms.

People infected with Omicron may also “have mild or asymptomatic infections and not even realize they are affected,” she pointed out. Also, at this point in the pandemic, the majority of BC residents are vaccinated. Select adults with mild to moderate COVID-19 who are at high risk of progressing to severe disease will have access to Canada’s first oral antiviral treatment for COVID-19.

“So with the emergence of these more transmissible variants, the incubation periods are shorter, COVID-19 is no longer an infection for which contact tracing is an effective intervention,” Henry pointed out.

“We now need to change our management and think about the things we can do at all levels to prevent transmission and prevent ourselves from being exposed.”

Although vaccination is the most effective way to prevent transmission of COVID-19, individuals should also manage their symptoms and stay home if they feel sick.

Four days later, health authorities in Beijing reported the activities of another Covid patient, a migrant worker, whose movement recording painted a radically different picture: it showed him working around 30 jobs in the space of two weeks, mainly in the early hours of the morning, carrying bags of cement and construction waste in the vast districts of the city.

The contrast caught the attention of Chinese social media users, some of whom posted the routes side by side to form a tale of two urban lives. The plight of the migrant worker, a 44-year-old man named Yue Zongxian, struck a chord with the Chinese public, who quickly dubbed him “the hardest-working man based on contact tracing records.”

An interview with Mr. Yue published by state-run publication China Newsweek on Thursday ricocheted across Chinese social media, with related hashtags racking up nearly 100 million views on China’s popular Twitter-like Weibo platform.

“I feel the warmth of society,” Mr Yue told the Wall Street Journal by phone from Ditan Hospital in northeast Beijing, where he is in quarantine. “It is very moving.”

Decades of skyrocketing growth in China have produced historic new levels of wealth, but also extreme inequality. Recently, the social mobility that once helped lift millions out of poverty has begun to slow, increasing fears that many families could be trapped in poverty for generations. China’s official Gini coefficient, a measure of income inequality, stood at 0.47 in 2020, slightly lower than that of the United States but still above the 0.4 threshold set by the Nations which indicates a large income gap.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s response has been to launch a “common prosperity” campaign that aims to curb capitalist excesses and distribute the fruits of the country’s growth more fairly. The campaign appears popular, although for many in China, Mr Yue’s story and her contrast of contact tracing with the other patient illustrates the challenges she faces.

Health authorities were alerted to Mr Yue’s existence after he took a nucleic acid test on Monday to board a train to the port city of Weihai in the eastern province of Shandong. The test came back positive for Covid-19.

A fisherman, Mr Yue said he had been in Beijing for around 40 days before his positive test. He said he traveled to the capital from Shandong to search for his eldest son, who disappeared on August 12, 2020 and had at one point worked at a restaurant in Beijing.

He said he did odd jobs transporting materials to and from construction sites, working mostly nights and early mornings, the hours when construction trucks are allowed inside the city. To save money, he said, he rented a room of about 100 square feet on the outskirts of Beijing, paying 700 yuan ($110) a month.

Most of the rest of the money he earned he sent to his wife and younger son and to his sick parents, whose medicine was expensive, Mr Yue said.

In a statement posted on its official social media account on Friday, the Weihai Police Department said that two weeks after Mr. Yue’s son disappeared, local police found a male corpse in a local pond that tests. DNA identified Mr. Yue’s eldest son. .

Mr. Yue said the local police showed him a body, but his face was round and swollen, where his son had always been skinny. He said he had never seen a DNA report and planned to continue the search.

The migrant worker, who is still coughing, said he was happy in hospital.

“My room is big enough and has a separate shower and toilet,” Mr. Yue told the Journal. He said he was delighted to receive a can of peaches from the local authorities, which symbolize a long and healthy life in China.

Mr. Yue said he didn’t complain or think his life was unfair. He said he was used to hard labor and felt it was his responsibility to continue working. “In this society, if you are able-bodied, you have to work hard and take care of your family,” he said.

His story nevertheless aroused a surge of sympathy from Chinese Internet users. Many tried to give him money, which he said he refused.

Guo Chao, a 25-year-old fitness trainer in Beijing, said Mr Yue’s story forced him to grapple with the difficulty of tackling inequality in China. He said he didn’t blame the wealthy person for their luxury, saying they had every right to enjoy themselves. He said he thought it was normal for different types of work to lead to different rewards, but also that “society should take care of people at the lower rungs.”

Although China’s most important holiday, the Lunar New Year, approaches next month, Mr Yue said he felt a duty to stay in Beijing and test negative for Covid before venturing back home .

“It’s my responsibility to society and my family,” he said.

—Xiao Xiao and Rachel Liang contributed to this article.

Write to Sha Hua at sha.hua@wsj.com

Corrections & Amplifications
China’s official Gini coefficient, a measure of income inequality, was in 2020 above the 0.4 threshold set by the United Nations, indicating a large income gap. A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that the UN threshold was 0.04. (Corrected January 21)

The big story: As the pandemic has progressed, school district protocols dealing with the coronavirus have seen some changes. One of the most significant changes has occurred in the area of ​​contact tracing and quarantine.

Faced with state restrictions on when students and staff must stay home, many districts have moved away from the detailed contact tracing and reporting of cases that marked the first year of the virus’s spread. . The Brevard County School District announced this week that it end of contact tracing due to a lack of resources, reports WESH. With rapidly rising numbers due to the contagious omicron variant, however, the move is facing a backlash.

A group of Pasco County students raised concerns this week that the lack of information has created chaos and confusion for them and their teachers. Their education is in jeopardy, they told the school board. What do they want? Read the story here.

How widespread is the virus these days? Duval County schools reported more cases in the last two weeks that in the first two months of the course, the Florida Times-Union reports. • Schools in Marion County recorded a record number of seven days, the Ocala Star-Banner reports. • Indian River County Schools perform a daily juggling act to make sure all classes are covered when teachers call in sick, WPTV reports. • Manatee County School District postponed many extracurricular activities, including performing arts but excluding sports, as its positivity rate has increased, reports the WFLA.

Mask issues persist. The Palm Beach County School Board reimposed a mask mandate during its meetings, reports WPTV. • No doctor in Florida has been disciplined for inappropriately issue mask opt-out forms earlier in the school year, reports Scripps.

Stock Tallahassee

The State Board of Education held a conference call on Wednesday to consider amendments to its budget proposal. It lasted less than six minutes, with no questions or comments about proposals to synchronize the council’s spending plan with that of the governor. You can listen now, and review the documents here.

A proposal to protect research information on college presidents from the public has been advanced at the State House. It has been modified to shorten the time during which the recordings would remain private, Florida politics reports.

A bill to clarify the charter school renewal process passed through its second House committee. The measure came after the Hillsborough County School District tried to overturn some charters with little notice during the summer, Florida politics reports.

Today in Tallahassee… the House Education and Employment Committee meets at 9 a.m. when three bills are scheduled to be considered, including a measure to extend parental rights in schools. The committee will also consider a proposal to eliminate salaries of school board members, reports the News Service of Florida.

money matters

The Santa Rosa County School District wanted to increase its impact fee. A county judge invalidated the action, noting gaps in district data justifying the higher amount, the Pensacola News-Journal reports.

The Alachua County School Board has approved a plan for $61.5 million in requested federal stimulus funds. Some residents have demanded more transparency how the money will be spent, the Gainesville Sun reports.

Escambia County veteran teachers are upset with the district’s raise offer. They rejected a Proposed increase of $200, claiming that it did not value their work, the Pensacola News-Journal reports.

In other news

With spotty bus rides, some families in Okaloosa County have turned to Uber to get their kids home after school. They find out that Uber has a policy against pick up unaccompanied minors, the Northwest Florida Daily News reports.

Another school district in Florida needs a new superintendent. St. Lucie County Schools Chief Wayne Gent announced that he retire at the end of June, TC palm reports.

The Palm Beach County School District has a new police chief. superintendent recommended an interim leader during a national search for a permanent replacement, palm beach post reports.

School board races are intensifying. A pastor who sits on the Volusia County Commission and who has been a pandemic denier has announced its offer knocking down a member of the school board for the first time, the Daytona Beach News-Journal reports.

Police blotter… A 16-year-old Seminole County student was arrested as a suspect in a school shooting of an 18-year-old college student, reports WFTV. The police described the situation as an isolated conflict. Other students at the school said shootings on campus shouldn’t feel so normal, reports WKMG.

Don’t miss a story. Yesterday’s roundup is just a click away.

Before you leave … Dolly Parton turned 76. Mark the occasion with a hot new remix of Jolene certain to attract new fans a quarter of her age.

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TOPEKA, Kan. – The Kansas Department of Health will no longer conduct outreach and contact surveillance beginning February 1, 2022.

“As we enter the third year of this pandemic, public health must begin to adjust the level of response to help ease the strain on the public health system,” said acting secretary Janet Stanek.

KDHE said contract tracing staff will be reassigned to contact investigations.

The department said county health departments across the state are already scaling back their contact tracing efforts and K-12 schools participating in contact tracing may also suspend operations.

“The pandemic is far from over, but this step is a step towards managing COVID-19 as an endemic disease,” Stanek said. “The responsibility to protect ourselves and others belongs to all of us.”

A person who tests positive for COVID-19 will now be responsible for notifying close contacts. If the person has exposed others in high-risk environments, KDHE or the local health department will contact the environment.

As omicron variant of COVID-19 virus continues to spread, KDHE recommends people get vaccinated and given a booster shot, wear masks, get tested, and stay home if exposed or if they are sick.

Four days before in-person learning resumes in Manitoba, the province announced K-12 schools will no longer provide close contact notifications and letters to parents about individual cases of COVID-19.

Instead, schools will provide absenteeism reports through their regular reporting channels.

The announcement was made during a Thursday afternoon press conference with provincial chief public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin, who said the highly infectious variant of omicron makes the current method of provincial contact tracing less effective than it used to be.

Roussin conceded that this sudden shift from COVID prevention to mitigation will come as a shock to some parents, as notification letters about coronavirus exposures have been a regular part of their children’s schooling since the pandemic emerged.

“It can feel like everything we’ve done over the past two years has been in vain, and that’s unsettling and unnerving for some,” he said.

“But again, the virus has changed drastically, so we need to drastically change our approach.”

Although close contact notifications are no longer in place as of Monday, Roussin said staff and students should still monitor for symptoms and adhere to COVID isolation protocols if they test positive.

In situations where public health officials determine that increased transmission may be occurring in a specific school, they may recommend the implementation of a rapid antigen testing period or other preventative measures.

When the province records an increase in COVID activity due to absenteeism, caseloads, or operational issues, Public Health will investigate and provide recommendations to school officials on how to proceed.

The province could even go so far as to establish a seven-day remote learning period for a specific class, cohorts or schools if the rapid spread of COVID impacts day-to-day operations.

Roussin also noted that public health will continue to report confirmed cases and outbreaks through the province’s online dashboard.

“With wide community transmission, we certainly expect to see cases in schools,” Roussin said. “We have to expect that. We have to manage our risk, not eliminate it.”

Education Minister Cliff Cullen was also on hand for Thursday’s announcement and listed a variety of other safety measures Manitoba schools will implement to keep staff and students safe on Monday.

“We have provided our school divisions with guidance on ventilation, how to protect their students from COVID-19, including the use of masks, enhanced cleaning measures, updated physical distancing requirements and increased efforts to reduce congestion in schools through operational plans,” he said.

Thursday’s press release that accompanied the announcement listed some of the specific investments the current Progressive Conservative government has already earmarked for Manitoba schools, including 500,000 rapid tests, $6 million for medical face masks and $6.8 million dollars for improved ventilation.

However, Manitoba Liberal Party Leader Dougald Lamont pushed back against Cullen’s claims that the PC government is being proactive on this front, writing on Twitter that the minister’s funding numbers aren’t making it to the classroom.

“There aren’t enough tests for families, masks for teachers or better ventilation in schools because PCs couldn’t bother to make the investments despite a year and a half of begging from teachers, parents and students,” Lamont wrote after Thursday’s announcement.

The province’s update on contact tracing in schools came a day after Premier Heather Stefanson told the public they must “learn to live with this virus” and expect all Manitobans will be exposed to the omicron variant in the coming weeks.

The province also halted most of its primary contact tracing for the general population on December 20, 2021, deciding to focus efforts on administering vaccines instead.

While the Superintendent of the Brandon School Division. Mathew Gustafson didn’t have much to say about Thursday’s contact tracing update, he told The Sun that his administration will send a letter to parents today explaining what local learning will look like in nobody next week.

“We will provide all the information we have to parents,” Gustafson said. “Because we believe that with this information they can feel comfortable with the measures that are in place to protect their children.”

BSD officials also announced on Wednesday that they are considering creating a K-8 distance learning option for parents who don’t feel comfortable sending their children back to class in the shade. of omicron.

If the division decides to go ahead with this option due to high demand, interested parties will receive a response by Jan. 19.

» kdarbyson@brandonsun.com

»Twitter: @KyleDarbyson

Public health officials on Thursday announced updated guidelines for contact tracing and case management in Manitoba schools as the omicron variant continues to spread across the province.

“As public health officials study the omicron variant and continue to learn more about it, they advise that we need to change how we respond to COVID-19 both in the community and in schools,” said Education Minister Cliff Cullen. “The changes Public Health has recommended for case and contact management in schools will ensure continued monitoring of risk in individual schools as we learn to live with the virus.

Going forward, schools will no longer provide close contact notification and notification letters on individual cases, but will provide absenteeism reports through their regular notification channels to their school community.

Schools will monitor staff and student absenteeism rates and self-reported COVID-19 cases. Additionally, public health will continue to report confirmed cases through the online dashboard and monitor confirmed cases in schools for evidence of increased transmission above expected levels in the community. When there is an increase in COVID-19 activity due to absenteeism, caseloads, or operational issues, Public Health will investigate and provide recommendations to school officials.

In situations where public health determines that increased transmission may be occurring in a school, it may recommend the implementation of a rapid antigen testing period or other preventative measures at school, such as reducing high-risk activities. When transmission continues to increase or when cases of COVID-19 affect the operation of schools, a seven-day remote learning period for the class, cohort or school may be recommended by public health.

“The omicron variant is not going away and we have to learn to live with the virus. It means adjusting our mindset from trying to contain the virus to trying to mitigate our risk,” said Dr. Brent Roussin, chief provincial public health officer. “Public health officials will also continue to monitor cases in schools and work with schools to track staff and student absenteeism rates. This will help us target measures such as rapid antigen testing programs and remote learning at specific schools as needed, rather than all measures applying to all schools in an area.

Students or staff who test positive for PCR or rapid antigen, or who suspect they have COVID-19, are required to follow public health isolation protocols and are strongly encouraged to notify the ‘school. School staff and students should go to a testing site if they have signs and symptoms of COVID-19.

Students and staff who are exposed at school can continue to attend as long as they are asymptomatic. Close household contacts who are exempt from isolation but have a case in their household are encouraged to use rapid tests to monitor for asymptomatic transmission, as the household contact remains the highest risk setting for transmission.

“The benefits of in-person learning cannot be understated, from mental and physical health to socializing and supporting families,” Cullen said. “Schools have done a tremendous job and put measures in place to help reduce the spread of the virus and protect our children. Schools will continue to work with public health to help mitigate the risk of the virus and keep children where they belong – in the classroom.

The minister noted that the announcement builds on a number of actions and investments to protect students and school staff, including:

– implement a rapid screening program for asymptomatic teachers, staff and K-12 students in Manitoba schools experiencing high caseloads or high levels of absenteeism;
– expand rapid testing for symptomatic staff in schools to include vaccinated and unvaccinated staff;
– moving schools to the restricted (orange) level of the pandemic response system to ensure that enhanced cleaning measures are in place and that schools ensure physical distancing of two meters where possible;
– provide 500,000 rapid tests to K-6 students to test for COVID-19 when they return to school;
– provide $6 million for medical masks that meet Health Canada performance requirements and other personal protective equipment;
– offering COVID-19 vaccinations in schools, including after-school clinics for students, teachers and community members;
– providing additional funding of $6.8 million to support more than 200 short-term operational improvements related to air purification, including filters, units and systems;
– investing in mental health supports for students and staff; and
– providing $45 million to the Safe Schools Fund to help address COVID-19-related expenses in schools, of which $30 million has been allocated by school divisions to support school impacts learning, mental health and well-being, including – the hiring of additional teachers, teaching assistants and clinicians.