Health

The number of Minnesotans receiving intensive hospital care for COVID-19 jumped by nine Friday, the largest single-day increase in more than a month. The increase comes as government leaders across the country are taking steps to prevent new transmissions and curb a national spike in new lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases, which are now surpassing 50,000 a…

Researchers at the Henry Ford Health System in Southeast Michigan have found that early administration of the drug hydroxychloroquine makes hospitalized patients substantially less likely to die.The study, published in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases, determined that hydroxychloroquine provided a "66% hazard ratio reduction," and hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin a 71 percent reduction, compared to neither treatment.In-hospital mortality was…

After months of diligently isolating, truck driver Tommy Macias, 51, made one error that cost him his life. He went to a barbecue party with some friends. He didn’t know that someone who had tested positive for COVID-19, but showed no symptoms, also was there.“It was all preventable,” said Gustavo Lopez, Macias’ 52-year-old brother-in-law. “That…

At least 105 students living in several University of Washington frat houses have reported testing positive for COVID-19, an ominous sign ahead of campuses reopening to students this fall. Most of the students are asymptomatic and none has fallen seriously ill, the school said. Dr. Jeff Duchin, public health officer with Public Health-Seattle & King…

A scanning electron microscope image of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus particles (orange) on a cell (blue).Credit: NIAID/NIH/SPL In late December 2019, reports emerged of a mysterious pneumonia in Wuhan, China, a city of 11 million people in the southeastern province of Hubei. The cause, Chinese scientists quickly determined, was a new coronavirus distantly related to the SARS…