Covid-19 updates: Disinfect your eyeglasses often; why don't some people want to get tested for the coronavirus?-HEALTHYLIVE

As news develops about the coronavirus and its covid-19 disease, this item may be updated. Official state guidance is at kycovid19.ky.gov.

• Experts encourage people who wear eyeglasses to disinfect them often because the coronavirus can stick to glass for nine days, the Lexington Herald-Leader reports, offering tips on cleaning. 
• Gov. Andy Beshear regularly says Kentucky has the capacity to test 2 percent of the population for coronavirus each month, as federal guidelines recommend, and the new challenge is a shortage of Kentuckians willing to get tested -- a problem in many states. The Washington Post explores some of the reasons, including a mistaken mindset among some that they don't need to get tested, even if they have mild symptoms, because that wouldn't change their course of treatment in any meaningful way. Also, there is confusion about who qualifies (no longer an issue in Kentucky), and " a lingering sense of scarcity, a lack of access in rural and under-served communities, concerns about cost and skepticism about testing operations," the Post reports. It notes Kentucky's success at securing testing materials from laboratories in the state when it, like other states, was facing severe shortages.
• Beshear has issued an emergency regulation for the Kentucky Health Access Nurturing Development Services, or HANDS program, which primarily serves first-time high-risk mothers in their homes. It allows admission of new families via telehealth, use of the online curriculum with currently enrolled families, and support of staff at a previously contracted rate. 
• A study by researchers from the University of Kentucky, Georgia State University and the University of Louisville looked at the effect that certain social distancing practices had on the number of coronavirus cases between March 1 and April 27. It found that bar and restaurant closures and shelter-in-place orders slowed cases in a "statistically significant" way, while bans on large gatherings and closing schools did not have the same impact. Aaron Yelowitz, an economics professor at UK and co-author of the research, told the Post that he didn't infer from the data that schools should have stayed open, thinking that parents just traded one type of social setting for another. Likewise, he thinks people also traded social interactions that they would have had at mass gatherings for other social interactions. The study shows that cases would have been 10 times higher without stay-in-place orders and 35 times higher without any restrictions; those findings were previously reported.
• UK Now reports on what you need to know about pediatric multi-system inflammatory syndrome, which is associated with covid-19. As of May 18, four Kentucky children had been diagnosed with it.
• The Hill offers "A definitive guide to mask fashion on Capitol Hill," where most senators and House members are wearing them. It says Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell "looks pretty comfortable" in a World Series champions Washington Nationals mask, and has also worn disposable masks.

McConnell in his Nationals mask (Photo by Tom Williams, CQ Roll Call)

Paul (Win McNamee, pool/AP)

The story ends with Sen. Rand Paul, whose face covering is "a scruffy beard he grew in quarantine at home after testing positive for the coronavirus," and he says he has immunity and can't spread the virus. However, "Health experts caution that little is definitively known about the novel coronavirus and immunity," The Hill notes. "He’s not breaking any rules. While many employees at the Capitol must now wear masks in the course of their jobs, it’s still a suggestion, not a requirement, for members of Congress. By going mask-free, Paul can skip all the hard and uncomfortable parts. He doesn’t have to worry about elastic digging into his ears or fabric muffling his voice. He doesn’t have to worry about logistical headaches, like removing it for speeches or touching it too much. Meanwhile, his colleagues are doing all that and more, with mixed results." The Hill says "far the largest mask-wearing category, in Congress and around the country" is people who say “I’m still figuring this out.”

from KENTUCKY HEALTH NEWS https://ift.tt/2WLFDex

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