Public Health

UNICEF and WHO issued an emergency call to action Nov. 6, estimating that $655 million is needed to address the major measles and polio vaccination disruptions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Flu activity has increased 0.1 percent each week for two weeks, according to the CDC's FluView report.

A 71-year-old immunocompromised woman at a Washington hospital shed SARS-CoV-2 for up to 70 days and tested positive for the virus 105 days after her initial diagnosis, according to a pre-proof study published in Cell.

UnityPoint Health Meriter in Madison, Wis., is rescheduling nonemergent surgeries that require overnight stays to save beds for COVID-19 patients, according to Wisconsin Business.

The U.S. hit its second consecutive daily COVID-19 case record Nov. 5, reporting more than 115,000 cases, according to The Washington Post. 

Greenville, S.C.-based Prisma Health permanently closed the emergency department at its hospital in Travelers Rest, S.C., the system said Nov. 5.

St. Luke's, a two-hospital system in Duluth, Minn., is postponing nonemergency surgeries amid a surge in COVID-19 patients, according to local news station WDIO.

As health officials in Colorado warn of "mounting pressure" on the healthcare system, Colorado hospitals are still accepting COVID-19 transfer patients from nearby states, reports CBS4. 

Residents at long-term care facilities across the country have suffered devastating consequences from COVID-19, but Colorado managed to better curb the spread of the virus in nursing homes compared to the national average, according to the AARP. 

A COVID-19 surge is straining intensive care unit capacity at hospitals in the Twin Cities metro area of Minnesota, according to the Star Tribune.