Coronavirus Daily News Brief – May 2: Bird Flu Has Circulated in Cows For Months, Banning Smartphones in Schools Leads to Improved Mental Health

The statue “Unsolicited Advice” by G. Seward Johnson Jr. on Main Street in Stamford, Ct.
Good afternoon. This is Jonathan Spira, director of research at the Center for Long Covid Research, reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on its 1,513th day.
In news we cover today , students became far more dependent on their smartphones during the first years of the pandemic, the FDA qualified the Apple Watch AFib history feature under its Medical Device Development Tools, and  the avian flu virus has been circulating in cows for far longer than had been thought to be the case.
TODAY IN COVID HISTORY
On May 2, 2020, over than 500 people gathered at the California Capitol in Sacramento to protest Governor Gavin Newsom’s stay-at-home order.
“The majority of the demonstrators were not wearing face masks or physically distancing and at one point a group of them locked hands,” the California Highway Patrol said in a statement. “In so doing, they were jeopardizing the health and safety of themselves as well as our officers and onlookers during this ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.”
Police arrested 32 for failing to comply with the lawful orders to disperse along with health and safety violations, the CHP said.
An emergency proclamation issued on May 1, 2020 in Stillwater, Oklahoma, requiring the use of face masks in stores and restaurants was amended Friday after several reports of threats of violence, Stillwater City Manager Norman McNickle said in a statement.
“In the short time beginning on May 1, 2020, that face coverings have been required for entry into stores/restaurants, store employees have been threatened with physical violence and showered with verbal abuse,” McNickle said in the statement. “In addition, there has been one threat of violence using a firearm. This has occurred in three short hours and in the face of clear medical evidence that face coverings helps contain the spread of COVID-19.”
Similar to what was the case in other states, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed an executive order today that extends existing safety measures to protect consumers and employees at grocery stores and pharmacies and the order was to remain in place until at least May 29.
The guidelines included: 1.) Customers were required to wear a face covering when entering a grocery store or pharmacy; 2.) Grocery stores and pharmacies were required to allocate at least two hours per week for vulnerable populations to shop safely; and 3.) If an employee were to test positive for coronavirus, the business was required to notify other employees
Finally, the U.S. Navy Blue Angels and U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds honored frontline health care workers and first responders battling coronavirus with flyover flights over Baltimore,  Washington, D.C., and Atlanta, just as there were at least 1,126,521 coronavirus cases in the United States and at least 66,051 deaths attributed to the virus.
TODAY’S PANDEMIC NEWS
UNITED STATES
In Connecticut, Raymond Dolphin , a middle school principal in Manchester took the steps to focus his pupils on their studies while also improving their mental health. What he did was simple: he banned the use of smartphones at school.  The move came because students had become much more attached to their phones during the isolation they faced in the first years of the coronavirus pandemic.
The school now requires pupils to place their phone in a Yondr pouch, a patented neoprene case that students aren’t able to open while on school grounds. The reports are promising from parents, teachers, and even the pupils themselves. Students are reporting to parents and teachers that they are making more friends and parents are reporting an improvement in their children’s studies, grades, and mental health.
A fraud investigator for the New York City Department of Homeless Services stole personal information from homeless people and sold the data to another person who then fraudulently used the victims’ identities and filed for special pandemic unemployment benefits in New Jersey.
Olabanji Otufale, a Brooklyn resident, was charged with having accessed names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers and photos of more than ten city homeless, according to an indictment unsealed on Wednesday.
According to court filings, he then sold that info to New Jersey resident Mark Lazarre, who is the one who filed the unemployment benefits claims.
OTHER HEALTHCARE NEWS

A new report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows that the avian flu virus circulated in cows for four months before the outbreak was confirmed. It appears that the spread in cattle started from a single spillover event from birds in the Texas panhandle that may have taken place in early December last year.
The Apple Watch AFib history feature was qualified by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration under its Medical Device Development Tools program, the first digital health technology feature of its kind to do so.
The watch has supported the feature, which allows users diagnosed with atrial fibrillation, to view an estimate of how frequently their heart is in this type of irregular rhythm.
PANDEMIC STATISTICS
CURRENT U.S. COVID STATISTICS AT A GLANCE
In the United States, in the week ending April 20, 2024, the test positivity rate was, based on data released on April 26 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was 3.0%, and the trend in test positivity is -0.4% in the most recent week. Meanwhile, the percentage of emergency department visits that were diagnosed as SARS-CoV-2 was 0.4%, and the trend in emergency department visits is -17.9%.
The number of people admitted to hospital in the United States due to SARS-CoV-2 in the same 7-day period was 5,615, a figure that is down 14.4 % over the past 7-day period. Meanwhile, the percentage of deaths due to SARS-CoV-2 was 0.9%, a figure that is down 10% in the same period.
VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT
Some 70.6% of the world population has received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine at press time, according to Our World in Data, an online scientific publication that tracks such information.  So far, 13.57 billion doses of the vaccine have been administered on a global basis and 8,645 doses are now administered each day.
Meanwhile, only 32.7% of people in low-income countries have received one dose, while in countries such as Canada, China, Denmark, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States, at least 75% of the population has received at least one dose of vaccine.
Only a handful of the world’s poorest countries – Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia and Nepal – have reached the 70% mark in vaccinations. Many countries, however, are under 20% and, in countries such as Haiti, Senegal, and Tanzania, for example, vaccination rates remain at or below 10%.
In addition, with the beginning of vaccinations in North Korea in late September, 2023, Eritrea remains the only country in the world that has not administered vaccines in any significant number
Finally, as of April 14, 2024, only Turkmenistan in Central Asia is only state that has not reported any cases of SARS-CoV-2 infections whatsoever, although it is strongly suspected that the virus is present there. Meanwhile, the last territory in the world to have its first ever SARS-CoV-2 infection was Tokelau, a dependency of New Zealand that reported its first five cases on December 21, 2022.
Where Has All the Data Gone?
We regret to inform that, as of April 15, 2024, the Global Daily Statistics data in the Coronavirus Daily News Brief are no longer being updated. Over the past 15 months, as more politicians and governments sought to place SARS-CoV-2 in the rear-view mirror, pandemic data reporting sputtered out and we are now at the point where it is simply not feasible to provide statistically valid case data on a global scale.
We are developing potential new and authoritative sources that we will present once they have been properly vetted, so stay tuned to this space. In the meantime, our Long Covid and pandemic coverage will remain much the same.
=======================================
Anna Breuer contributed reporting to this issue.
The Coronavirus Daily News Brief is a publication of the Center for Long Covid Research. www.longcov.org
If you have Long Covid and need to talk to someone, call the Long Covid Patient Peer Counseling Phone Line, or HOPELINE.  The HOPELINE is our free, confidential support and information service.
☏ 844 LONGCOV (844 566-4268) 
(Photo: Accura Media Group)