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cindylouwho-2 · 4 years ago

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RECENT NEWS, RESOURCES & STUDIES, August 19, 2020

Welcome to my latest summary of recent ecommerce news, resources & studies including search, analytics, content marketing, social media & Etsy! This covers articles, podcasts, videos and infographics I came across since the late July report, although some may be older than that.

Please note I am taking the next week off, starting tomorrow (Aug. 19), so I might be a little slow in replying to any comments.

TOP NEWS & ARTICLES

USPS has become the focus of investigations due to reported mail slowdowns. Some small businesses who rely on USPS to deliver are suffering. “The longer the policy has been in effect, the worse the backlog gets.” As of today (August 18), the postmaster says they will rollback the changes until after the election in November. This is a rapidly-moving story in part due to the push for voting by mail, and should concern anyone who ships to US customers using regular mail (as opposed to couriers). Meanwhile, they plan to temporarily raise commercial rates during the holiday shopping season, but retail rates will not change.

Ecommerce sales are still up year over year. "Before Covid-19 hit the US in March, e-commerce made up roughly 12% of retail sales in the country. That figure grew as states issued shelter-in-place orders that shut stores and kept shoppers at home, creating tailwinds for a company like Amazon. But even as states have begun to reopen, e-commerce has remained elevated, according to Bank of America data."..."The Economist used Google search traffic for hints of how lifestyles are changing and found users are still searching terms related to cooking, crafts, and exercise above pre-pandemic rates. There has been a noticeable spike in interest around such products as gardening supplies, baking flour, and Crocs." The UK is still seeing a good increase despite the ease in reduction in lockdown restrictions. The growth is slowing a bit in the US, though.

Half of US small businesses fail in the first year (and other stats on small business).

It’s been second quarter report season, covering company performance from April to June 2020. Here are results for major companies involved in ecommerce in some way (comparisons are year-over-year):

Amazon US: sales up 40%

eBay: sales up 26%

Etsy: sales up $146% [click the link to read my summary]

Facebook: revenue up 11%

Google: revenue down 2%

PayPal: revenue up 22%

Pinterest: revenue up 4%; active users up 39%

Shopify: revenue up 97%

Walmart [2nd quarter ran May to July]: ecommerce sales up 97%, same-store sales up 9.3%

ETSY NEWS

Admin are now posting a monthly update thread, in case you fear you have missed anything. This is how they chose to announce that non-seller accounts can no longer post in the forum. Since those account owners can still read the forum, that doesn’t mean you can call out your customers now.

Sadly, there wasn’t much media coverage of Etsy’s nearly-annual billing screw up, but this one did get some attention.

Etsy continues to get good media coverage for masks, including masks for your dolls. They also apparently got a decent slice of Google ranking for various pandemic-related searches in May [scroll down to the “Protection and Prevention” section].

However, Etsy is getting some bad press (along with Amazon), for allowing QAnon merchandise, because “the FBI has warned of the movement's potential to incite domestic terrorism.” Etsy replied to a request for comment saying that “that product listings associated with certain movements are allowed as long as they don't violate the company's seller or prohibited items policies, which ban items that promote hate or that could incite violence. The company said it is continually reviewing items on the site and could remove items in the future if they're found to violate Etsy's policies.”

More search trends on Etsy, this time kids’ items. I love how they think tie-dye was a ‘90s thing and not a ‘60-70s thing LOL. “a 318% increase in searches for kids tie-dye items...71% increase in searches for dinosaur wall art or decor*, and a 37% increase in searches for school of fish items….we’ve seen kid-friendly crafts spike in popularity, with searches for DIY kits for kids up 336%.”

Also, the holiday trends guide is out. “With the holidays approaching, and most shopping happening online, more shoppers will be looking for your help to make the season feel special.” The report is lengthy, covering Halloween to New Year’s, and most listing categories, while pointing out the possible pandemic changes to the usual trends. There is also an accompanying podcast with transcript.

Speaking of the holiday season, here are Etsy’s tips for shops. Note that it is a bit late, as businesses need to have their holiday items posted no later than July if they want to be eligible for most fall media coverage. Almost every point refers to an Etsy tool or feature, some of them costing you money, so use this as a very broad guideline & be careful to read between the lines.

They are still rolling out Etsy Payments to more countries: Morocco & Israel are the most recent. Note that Etsy Payments is not yet compulsory in these new countries.

Etsy Ads once again has graphs. Do you find them useful? (I haven’t run ads at all this year, so I can’t check.)

Sendle is the latest shipping company to have a label integration with Etsy shops.

Etsy asked US sellers to lobby their reps for more support for small business and other initiatives in the pandemic aid package.

SEO: GOOGLE & OTHER SEARCH ENGINES

Google has stated that content on tabs is indexed and contributes to ranking as if it were on the page instead, but yet another test demonstrates that tabs may limit you.

Due to the pandemic, Google has delayed finalizing mobile-first indexing until March 2021. (They originally announced it would be finished this September.) That means you have more time to update your website’s mobile version, ideally with responsive design.

Site speed does matter to SEO, and Google is now asking some searchers how fast certain sites loaded for them.

User comments on your products, blog posts and website can help you improve your SEO. The article suggests ways of getting that feedback, and ways to use it. [I’ve even had buyers give me new keywords to describe my items, in their messages and reviews.]

Getting links back to your site is important to SEO, but don’t annoy people while doing it. [sort of humour & sort of a rant, but does give some useful background on why backlinks matter.] Internal links also matter.

There are some special tricks for food/recipe SEO, including structured data and even a WordPress plugin.

Another WordPress plugin: submit any new or updated pages to Bing to be automatically re/indexed.

Do your keyword research before setting up your website’s sections and sub-sections, as they should serve the buyer experience, not your perception of it. Same with choosing which pages link to each other.

SEOs are still trying to work out what happened with recent Google algorithm changes. Search Engine Journal claims that the May update was at least in part about demoting sites that had out-of-date or inaccurate information, so they suggest getting rid of the bad content on your site, or at least updating it. “Content pruning” has some advocates, but I wouldn’t worry about investing tons of time in this unless you have tons of time to spend. Just get rid of the blog posts that were wildly wrong, and the out-of-date filler. If you have a lot of sold out products, redirect those to relevant active pages.

Meanwhile, a “glitch” on August 10 led people to think there was a massive Google algorithm update happening, but it all got fixed in less than a day.

If you are behind on Google search news, here is a 7 minute video [with time stamped subtopics & resources links listed below], direct from Google.

(CONTENT) MARKETING & SOCIAL MEDIA (includes blogging & emails)

It’s tough to get started in social media if you don’t know the terminology, so here’s a list of the basic definitions you can consult if you get lost when reading.

Don’t know how to blog? There are formulas you can use; here are eight options, nicely laid out, with downloadable templates. Don’t forget to figure out what your audience wants to read. And make sure you avoid these common blogging mistakes.

If you have an email list but do not know how to take advantage of all the bells & whistles the companies (MailChimp, Constant Contact etc.) offer you, here are 4 ways to segment your lists. You can then send different offers or newsletters to different segments.

You can optimize your social posts for people with visual impairments; excellent tips here.

By the time you read this, the TikTok mess will likely have changed again, but here is an article on Trump’s order to prohibit US companies from doing business with TikTok owner ByteDance if the platform is not sold by September 15.

Instagram has released its TikTok challenger, Reels, in more countries.

Instagram is now offering a fundraising option, although it is a slow launch with some beta testing in the US, UK & Ireland to start.

Here are step-by-step instructions on setting up your “Shop on Instagram.”

Pinterest says that searches around self-care & wellness have spiked during the pandemic lockdowns. “Pinterest has recently seen the highest searches ever around mental wellness ideas including meditation (+44%), gratitude (+60%) and positivity (+42%) that jumped from February to May….Pinterest says that searches for ‘starting a new business’ are up 35% on average, as are searches for ‘future life goals’ (2x), ‘life bucket list’ (+65%), ‘family goals future’ (+30%) and ‘future house goals’ (+78%).” There were also some searches clearly about spending more time at home: “Productive morning routine (up 6x), Exercise routine at home (up 12x), Self care night routine (up 7x)”

LinkedIn has a new algorithm; here’s how to make it work for you. [Many of these tips also apply to social media in general.]

Spotify is now doing “video podcasts”. Apparently a lot of their podcasters already did a video version of the Spotify podcasts, but had to publish it elsewhere up until now.

Twitter now admits it is considering offering subscriptions to shore up its revenue numbers. “Shares of Twitter rose 4% in early trading Thursday following the earnings results....Twitter's growth plans are under close scrutiny as many advertisers pull back due to the pandemic. On Thursday, Twitter reported second-quarter ad revenues of $562 million, a 23% decrease compared to the same quarter a year ago. The company has also been hit by advertisers participating in an ad boycott of social media, linked to the nationwide racial justice protests.” Also, the recent hack is not helping them.

That said, it is still possible to market using Twitter, and here are some of the basics.

YouTube is no longer sending email updates when a channel you follow posts new content.

ONLINE ADVERTISING (SEARCH ENGINES, SOCIAL MEDIA, & OTHERS)

Ad spend has increased again as lockdowns end, in some cases beating last year by a decent margin.

The Buy on Google program is ending its commission fees. Participants will also be able to integrate their PayPal and/or Shopify payment options. As often is the case, they are starting with the US first, but plan on rolling it out to more countries in the future. There are more details here, and a review here (with some of the drawbacks).

Google Product Ads are now showing the item’s “material” on the listing card (before you click). If you are doing your own feed for your website, you may have the ability to add the attributes needed for the details to show up.

If you find Google Ads too expensive, consider buying search ads on Bing.

eBay is experimenting with showing ads mixed in with unpaid listings; placement would depend on the same algorithm.

Here’s a new guide to Facebook Ads [videos & text]

STATS, DATA, OTHER TRACKING

Bing has launched a new version of Webmaster Tools.

There are ways to reduce the amount of traffic that Google Analytics designates as “direct traffic”; here are 15 of them.

Currently in closed beta testing, the Google Search Console now has an “Insights” function, just like Google Analytics. I’ve found the GA one useful for telling me things I don’t always look at, so crossing my fingers that they release this to everyone soon.

ECOMMERCE NEWS, IDEAS, TRENDS

Shopify helped many businesses stay open during pandemic lockdowns, giving it the boost to start competing with the likes of Amazon in ecommerce. “Shopify merchants that had previously or entirely relied on brick-and-mortar sales would later report they were able revive nearly 95% of that revenue online.”

eBay started rolling out its Managed Payments system to more sellers worldwide on July 20th. Things seem to be going slowly, with some confusion.

But eBay is also having a 25th anniversary party for sellers on September 25th; don’t forget to register.

Walmart is still delaying its new subscription model to challenge Amazon Prime, Walmart+.

Amazon in the UK has launched a “Face mask store” part of the website. I haven’t seen this on other versions of Amazon. They’ve also increased some fees for some UK sellers, based on the new UK digital tax. And they are launching a site & presence in Sweden.

The Competition Bureau of Canada has launched an investigation of Amazon’s treatment of third-party sellers. “The bureau is asking any person or business that has conducted sales via Amazon.ca to contact them if they have any insights into the issues it is investigating.“

Amazon Prime Day has been postponed to later dates this year, starting with India on August 6-7. The remaining countries will apparently be announced soon.

If you use WooCommerce, here are a bunch of free plugins, with brief descriptions.

BUSINESS & CONSUMER STUDIES, STATS & REPORTS; SOCIOLOGY & PSYCHOLOGY, CUSTOMER SERVICE

Buyers do not all make purchase decisions the same way; Google uses its massive collection of data and some new studies to provide some examples. “Worldwide, search interest for “best” has far outpaced search interest for “cheap.”

It’s cheaper to keep repeat buyers than it is to find new ones; here are 16 ways to do that. One of my favourites is ““proactively providing information on how to avoid problems or get more out of your product” creates a 32% average lift to repurchase or recommend.”

It seems that researchers can never produce enough marketing guides on Gen Z and millennials.

MISCELLANEOUS (including humour)

I see a lot of new sellers, and some older sellers, confused about the idea of a business plan. HubSpot not only explains them, but also provides a downloadable template.

If you are thinking of changing careers, or just want to add skills to better run your current business, Google has many different courses, some of which they offer for free.

There are ways you can increase your productivity without (usually) working more hours. “A study published by John Pencavel of Standford University found that how much employees get done takes a sharp drop after 50 hours of work in a week, and even more drastically after 55 hours. The study found that employees working 70 hours per week actually produce nothing more in those extra 15 hours...taking a power nap in the middle of the day can help you process new information and even learn new skills.”

#SEO #seo tips #etsy #contentmarketing #ecommerce #smallbiz #ecommercetips #social media

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newstfionline · 4 years ago

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Headlines

SpaceX capsule and NASA crew make 1st splashdown in 45 years (AP) Two NASA astronauts returned to Earth on Sunday in a dramatic, retro-style splashdown, their capsule parachuting into the Gulf of Mexico to close out an unprecedented test flight by Elon Musk’s SpaceX company. It was the first splashdown by U.S. astronauts in 45 years, with the first commercially built and operated spacecraft to carry people to and from orbit. The return clears the way for another SpaceX crew launch as early as next month and possible tourist flights next year. Test pilots Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken rode the SpaceX Dragon capsule back to Earth less than a day after departing the International Space Station and two months after blasting off from Florida. The capsule parachuted into the calm gulf waters about 40 miles off the coast of Pensacola, hundreds of miles from Tropical Storm Isaias pounding Florida’s Atlantic coast. “Welcome back to planet Earth and thanks for flying SpaceX,” said Mission Control from SpaceX headquarters. More than an hour after splashdown, the astronauts emerged from their capsule on the deck of a recovery ship, both signaling a thumbs-up as they headed for medical exams.

Students return to campus (AP) The first wave of college students returning to their dorms aren’t finding the typical mobs of students and parents. What they found Friday were strict safety protocols and some heightened anxiety amid a global pandemic where virus infections are growing in dozens of states. North Carolina State University staggered the return of its students over 10 days and welcomed the first 900 students to campus, where they were greeted Friday by socially distant volunteers donning masks and face shields. Elon University in North Carolina, mailed testing kits to all 7,000 students ahead of their arrival in a few weeks. Maine’s Colby College will be testing students before they arrive and then three times a week for the first two weeks on campus. They’ll be tested twice a week after that, until the semester ends. The University of Rhode Island is scaling back campus housing to abide by distancing requirements, causing a scramble for some students. “Just like the rest of the world, we have to figure out how to carry on,” said Betsy Flanagan, who was sending her freshman son, Arch, off to college. “This virus isn’t going away and it’s going to be with us for quite a while, so we all have to figure out how to safely exist and that includes continuing to educate our future.”

Face masks are thwarting even the best facial recognition algorithms, study finds (CNET) It turns out face masks aren’t just effective at preventing the spread of airborne diseases like COVID-19—they’re also successful at blocking facial recognition algorithms, researchers say. In a report published Monday, the US National Institute of Standards and Technology found that face masks were thwarting even the most advanced facial recognition algorithms. Error rates varied from 5% to 50%, depending on an algorithm’s capabilities.

How the pandemic and a broken unemployment system are upending people’s lives (Washington Post) He had five days to move out of the house in Brightwood Park, and now Daniel Vought stood looking at the plastic crates stacked in the living room holding his things. T-shirts. Power cords. Pokémon cards and stuffed animals. His beloved guitar—a Gibson Explorer electric—still hung on the wall. He figured it would be safer staying behind. A new housemate was coming, one who could actually pay $800 a month for the room Vought, 30, had lived in rent-free since the coronavirus pandemic shut down the Georgetown bar where he worked. For four months, his unemployment benefits application had been snared in red tape at the D.C. Department of Employment Services, a black hole of unanswered emails, phone holds and automated voice messages offering delays instead of answers. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people in the nation’s capital have been sucked down the same confusing abyss. Through July 29, the employment office has fielded more than 133,000 claims, nearly five times the number processed in all of 2019. In the meantime, the end of July meant the end of the initial round of federal emergency pandemic assistance. Republicans and Democrats in Congress are deadlocked over the scope of a second wave of federal help. No matter what that future assistance looks like, for people like Vought, still waiting for benefits from the spring and living without a financial cushion, the damage has been done. People pushed into poverty by the coronavirus pandemic could face years of increased dependence on government help, experts say, and greater housing insecurity and homelessness. A single mother with another baby due this summer found herself choosing between buying food or paying the rent. A former D.C. police officer spent months on a relative’s sofa, unable to find work or collect unemployment so he could find his own housing.

Coronavirus pandemic causes another health concern—closed public restrooms (Washington Post) When courier Brent Williams makes his daily deliveries around the city here, he runs into one persistent problem: There’s almost nowhere to use the restroom. Most public buildings are closed under the pandemic, and restaurants and coffee shops that have shifted to carryout service won’t let him use their facilities. “It’s hard to find any place where I can use the restroom,” said Williams, speaking outside a library in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood that has reopened its restrooms to the public. The library is one of five citywide to have opened their doors, and other parts of the city have almost no options for those who need to relieve themselves or wash their hands. The lack of restrooms has become an issue for delivery workers, taxi and ride-hailing drivers and others who make their living outside of a fixed office building. For the city’s homeless, it’s part of an ongoing problem that preceded covid-19. “It’s gone from bad to worse,” said Eric, who lives in an encampment near Interstate 5. (Eric asked to be identified by only his first name.) “It’s definitely much, much harder.”

A weakened Tropical Storm Isaias lashes virus-hit Florida (AP) Bands of heavy rain from Isaias lashed Florida’s east coast Sunday while officials dealing with surging cases of the coronavirus kept a close watch on the weakened tropical storm. Isaias was downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm Saturday afternoon, but was still threatening to bring heavy rain and flooding as it crawled just off Florida’s Atlantic coast. Upper-level winds took much of the strength out of Isaias, said Stacy Stewart, senior hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center in Miami. The storm also slowed down considerably.Authorities closed beaches, parks and virus testing sites, lashing signs to palm trees so they wouldn’t blow away. DeSantis said the state is anticipating power outages and asked residents to have a week’s supply of water, food and medicine on hand. Officials wrestled with how to prepare shelters where people can seek refuge from the storm if necessary, while also safely social distancing to prevent the spread of the virus.

Latin America coronavirus death toll surges past 200,000 (Reuters) The death toll in Latin America from the novel coronavirus passed 200,000 on Saturday night, a Reuters tally showed, underlining the region’s status as one of the global epicenters of the pandemic that is testing governments to the limit. Apart from the United States, Brazil and Mexico have racked up more fatalities from the virus than any other country, and together they account for around 70% of the regional death toll. Both have struggled to balance the need to curb the spread of the virus with restrictive safety measures while trying to reopen their economies, which have been battered by the crisis. Other countries in Latin America are also battling to hold the coronavirus at bay, and the region breached the 200,000 mark after Peru registered another 191 fatalities.

Indian police crackdown on illegal liquor suppliers after 86 die (Reuters) Indian police raided rural hamlets and made arrests to break up a bootlegging cartel on Sunday, after 86 people died from consuming illegally-produced alcohol this week in the northwestern state of Punjab, officials said.

Victoria state declares disaster, night curfew (AP) The premier of Australia’s hard-hit Victoria state has declared a disaster among sweeping new coronavirus restrictions across Melbourne and elsewhere from Sunday night. An evening curfew will be implemented across Melbourne from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. Premier Daniel Andrews says the state of disaster proclamation gave police greater power. He says 671 new coronavirus cases had been detected since Saturday, including seven deaths. It comes among a steadily increasing toll in both deaths and infections over the past six weeks in Victoria. Melbourne residents will only be allowed to shop and exercise within 5 kilometers (3 miles) of their homes. All students across the state will return to home-based learning and child care centers will be closed.

Israel’s Netanyahu rails at media over protests against him (AP) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday railed at swelling protests against his rule, saying they were egged on by a biased media that distorts facts and cheers on the demonstrators. Netanyahu has faced a wave of protests in recent weeks, with demonstrators calling for the resignation of the long-serving leader, who is on trial for corruption charges. They’ve also panned his handling of the coronavirus crisis. Netanyahu has painted the protests as dens of “anarchists” and “leftists” out to topple “a strong right-wing leader.” The protests have largely been peaceful. In some cases they have ended with clashes between demonstrators and police. In others, small gangs of Netanyahu supporters and individuals affiliated with far-right groups have assaulted demonstrators.

#headlines #news

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timespakistan · 4 years ago

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UK hunts for unidentified case of Brazil virus strain British health authorities are hunting for an unidentified person in the UK who is infected with the Brazil variant of COVID-19 in the hopes of stopping its spread, local media reported on Monday. The Public Health England (PHE) announced Sunday that they had identified six cases of the variant in the UK, half in England and the other half in Scotland, while only one case remains unidentified. The variant was originally identified in Manaus, a city in Brazil. It is thought to be a more transmissible strain and could potentially be more resistant to current COVID-19 vaccines. Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi told Sky News: “There is one case where the individual didn’t fill in their test card details so we can contact them. “They’ve probably got a home kit or a test kit from their local authority. What we’re asking today is, anyone who had a test on 12 or 13 February to contact NHS 119 so that we make sure we identify that individual.” The PHE’s Strategic Response Director Dr. Susan Hopkins told the BBC: “We are looking at where the test may have been sent from and to, working with the postal services and the courier services.” British officials are combing through passengers who were on Swiss Air flight LX318 from Sao Paulo to Heathrow, via Zurich, which landed on Feb. 10, which was before the new hotel quarantine policy came into force. Surge testing is also taking place across the UK to pin down any new infections. Dr. Hopkins added: “Manaus, in particular, reported that a number of individuals were re-infected with this variant, and therefore that suggests that having had prior immunity from primary infection wasn’t enough to reduce infection and transmission. And that may also impact on the vaccine.” “I think the importance here is that, while we’re in national restrictions, while we have very transmissible variants that are circulating, then we hope that there are not any other variants that will be able to take over,” she said. “However, as we start to release national restrictions with the schools going back on March 8, that is where the risk starts to increase, and that’s why we really are clamping down on a number of measures to prevent the spread of these variants.” She added: “We haven’t detected it in any individual who hasn’t had a history of travel or had contact with travel yet, so that is good news. But we are prepared to search it out in the communities, if it is there.” https://timespakistan.com/uk-hunts-for-unidentified-case-of-brazil-virus-strain/12081/

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igoebooks · 4 years ago

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🦠 As part of The Public Health Team - LBN - Newham Covid-19 Champions we have been encouraged to have a Covid-19 test even though we have no signs or symptoms as an added precaution with the R rate high and to promote other people doing likewise and eliminate ourselves from being unwitting carriers 🔬 Home Test Kit ordered last Wednesday; arrived 24 hours after booking online via a courier in the morning; Tests done and returned by special post in the afternoon; 11.31 am Sunday I received both texts and e-mails confirming that my test showed I was ‘negative’ so do not have the Coronavirus❗️Everyone is encouraged to have the test even though not having any signs or symptoms to eliminate as too many people are walking around without realising they are a carrier – please do so TODAY @ www.gov.uk/register-home-test 🌐 There is the option of attending a Test Centre in your locality or by post and I did. Caution to ALL of us… Even though we hopefully get a negative test result does not mean we have carte blanche to now go around as though we are immune… we are all still sceptical to COVID-19 and should consider the test result a nice bonus but still carry on behaving with all the precautions advised including face-covering > distancing > hand washing and following the restrictive measures in place which for most at this time is Tier 4. https://www.instagram.com/p/CJBWrllgEDM/?igshid=1q7n3qiwt7llq

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olko71 · 4 years ago

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New Post has been published on All about business online

New Post has been published on http://yaroreviews.info/2020/12/the-mass-distribution-of-covid-19-vaccines-is-under-way-everything-has-to-come-together

The Mass Distribution of Covid-19 Vaccines Is Under Way. 'Everything Has to Come Together.'

Sarah Krouse

Jared S. Hopkins

and

Anna Wilde Mathews

Dec. 13, 2020 10:48 am ET

Trucks filled with Covid-19 vaccine vials pulled out of Pfizer Inc.’s Kalamazoo, Mich., production plant on Sunday morning, part of one of the largest mass mobilizations since the country’s factories were repurposed to help fight World War II.

The effort to vaccinate the nation relies on chemists, factory workers, truck drivers, pilots, data scientists, bureaucrats, pharmacists and health-care workers. It requires ultracold freezers, dry ice, needles, masks and swabs converging simultaneously at thousands of locations across the country.

To work, every one of the many and complicated links of the chain has to hold.

In the trucks that headed to airports and distribution hubs, specially designed containers equipped with sensors monitored location, temperature, light exposure and unusual jolting. Inside, dry ice sandwiched thousands of doses of BNT162b2, the scientific name of the Covid-19 vaccine.

“The biggest concern that I have is not that we don’t know what to do. We have contingency plans in place for just about everything,” said Shawn Seamans, a senior executive in charge of the Covid vaccine distribution program at McKesson Corp. , which is dispatching syringes and other supplies for administering Pfizer’s vaccine. “You don’t know if it’s going to work until you get there.”

Pfizer is leading the distribution of the vaccine, developed with BioNTech SE of Germany. That differs from vaccines developed by other drug companies, which will be distributed by McKesson as the federal government-appointed partner. Among the most difficult aspects of delivering the first vaccine to gain emergency approval: the need to keep it at minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit as it travels and awaits use at vaccination sites.

Despite dry runs and contingency planning, a lot can go wrong. Refrigeration problems could ruin doses, and logistical snafus could delay shipments. If hospitals botch the challenge of scheduling a continuous stream of people to get the shots, defrosting doses might go bad. And the pandemic itself could sideline some of the armies of workers involved in the effort.

“Everything has to come together—the packaging, the dry ice, the vials, the material itself. It all has to come together to the same place and have enough of it and exactly the right people there ready to take it,” said Yossi Sheffi, director of the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics. “Right now, there’s no conductor to the symphony,” just many parts that each need to work.

The vaccine

The journey starts in a factory just outside St. Louis, where Pfizer scientists make the raw materials that are the backbone of the vaccine. Those materials move on to Andover, Mass., where researchers turn them into mRNA—molecular couriers that deliver genetic instructions to the body.

The mRNA is dispatched to Michigan, where machines the size of single-car garages envelop them with lipid nanoparticles, microscopic vessels used to deliver genetic material into the body. Making doses takes about a week, and batches sit for about two weeks before being shipped.

The vaccine is transported in glass vials strong enough to withstand transit and the subarctic temperatures in which the liquid must be stored. Trays carrying 195 vials are packed with dry ice in suitcase-like boxes weighing 80 pounds. Those vaccines eventually are diluted with enough saline solution to make 975 doses.

Tate Trujillo, director of pharmacy at Indiana University Health, with cold-storage units and shipping containers suitable for the Covid-19 vaccine.

Photo: bryan woolston/Reuters

Because Pfizer needs dry ice to keep its vaccine cold, it bought its own dry-ice-making equipment. Now it is making dry ice at both the Kalamazoo plant, where 650 employees worked on distribution efforts, and a storage facility in Pleasant Prairie, Wis., where it has freezer farms to store the vaccines.

Pfizer bought three tanks to hold the carbon dioxide used to make dry ice, each the size of a three-story grain silo. Assembly lines end with machines that shoot out the dry-ice pellets used to blanket the vials inside containers, each holding about 1,000 vials.

Inside each box, a device about the size of a cellphone measures temperatures, records GPS and can detect if a box is opened. Pfizer can track the boxes until they arrive at their destinations.

“We actually know every moment in the journey, and the temperature, and there were no deviations,” said Mike McDermott, the Pfizer global-supply president overseeing the manufacturing and distribution.

Pfizer has been testing the boxes for months, shipping them empty to places like Dubai and Africa, then conducting runs with airlines, logistics companies and certain states.

Supply chain experts said problems could develop given the newness of Pfizer’s operation. Raw materials or batches might need to be discarded, filled vials could break in transit and the containers could be mishandled by recipients. Pfizer has even instituted safety measures to prevent the theft of doses.

The kits

A package of vaccine supplies sent by McKesson to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

Photo: Tim Betler/University of Pittsburgh Medical Center

Vaccinating the nation also requires the simultaneous mass distribution of face masks, needles, syringes and alcohol wipes needed to administer shots, along with saline solution to dilute vials and create doses.

For weeks, workers in McKesson facilities across the U.S. have been filling boxes with those supplies, and on Wednesday, the company began shipping the containers, each weighing up to 50 pounds and holding enough supplies for 1,000 doses.

After stopping at a storage and distribution hub in Louisville, Ky., the boxes were ferried by United Parcel Service Inc. planes and trucks to hundreds of nursing homes, hospitals and pharmacy hubs nationwide.

Ensuring the packages arrive at the right locations is a challenge. During mock vaccine distribution exercises, some supply kits arrived two days after vaccine doses, Dr. Rachel Levine, a Pennsylvania state health official, told Congress earlier this week. A McKesson spokeswoman said that during its initial test with empty boxes, a data transmission issue was identified and resolved before actual kits were shipped.

When McKesson tested the transmission of data between itself, Pfizer and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it found that in some instances destination data weren’t transmitted, preventing some test orders from shipping. McKesson said those issues have been resolved.

“Having syringes without vaccines isn’t very helpful,” said Bruce Gellin, president of global immunization at Sabin Vaccine Institute, a nonprofit that promotes vaccine adoption and trains immunization professionals. “It all has to go right.”

Leaving the factory

A shipment of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccines was unloaded on Dec. 2 from a United Airlines cargo flight from Brussels to Chicago.

Photo: united airlines/Reuters

Pfizer is shipping vaccines from many locations, and some doses are made abroad. During Thanksgiving week, about 750,000 doses made in Europe arrived at Chicago O’Hare International Airport on chartered cargo flights from Brussels International Airport. More flights followed. United Airlines Inc. has made five vaccine-carrying flights from Belgium to the U.S., each capable of transporting over one million doses, the company said.

After landing in the U.S., the vaccine is trucked to FedEx Corp. and UPS air hubs in Memphis, Louisville and elsewhere.

FedEx affixes a tracking device to every package it transports, allowing the carrier to monitor each shipment’s location. UPS has a similar scanning technology. Vaccines arriving in Memphis and other hubs get the fast-lane treatment meant for priority packages, with an early delivery commitment the next day.

United Parcel Service freezer units being unpacked and tested in anticipation of FDA approval of the vaccine.

Photo: UPS/EPA/Shutterstock

Delivery networks have been stretched thin by a pandemic-fueled surge in online shopping, leaving little margin for error. Executives say holiday gifts will take a back seat to vaccines, and they have reserved enough space in their networks to handle the expected shipments.

“We’ve planned for the capacity,” said Richard Smith, president of the Americas for FedEx Express. “This is something we are confident will not overwhelm the system.”

Shipments of anything by road or air can be delayed by such vagaries as winter weather or mechanical problems.

Truck fleets that work with pharmaceutical companies undergo quality audits and certifications to ensure they adhere to global standards for the transport of medicine.

“You can’t haul chicken nuggets and then transport oncology drugs,” said Andrew Boyle, co-president of Boyle Transportation, a Billerica, Mass.-based trucking company that specializes in secure, temperature-controlled transport and is involved in Covid-19 vaccine distribution efforts.

On the move

Coolers for temperature-sensitive shipments at a Lufthansa cargo facility at Chicago O’Hare International Airport.

Photo: Natalia Plekhanova/Lufthansa

U.S. airports have been gearing up for months, including upgrading freezer storage facilities and training staff. They are operating on a compressed timetable.

Deutsche Lufthansa AG , one of the world’s biggest air transporters of vaccines, including measles treatments, usually is notified months ahead of time about pallets of vaccines coming its way. It expects five-day notice or less for imports or exports of the Covid-19 vaccines, said Bernhard Kindelbacher, the airline’s vice president of cargo for the U.S. and Canada. “It’s the uncertainty,” he said. “What routes, what volumes, what temperatures?”

After doses land at airports close to vaccination sites, they again are loaded onto trucks.

The process will become more complex as distribution moves from large urban and suburban areas to more remote locations with smaller populations, said Susan Beardslee, principal analyst for freight transportation and logistics at technology-market advisory firm ABI Research. “In a remote area, where are you going to find those drivers that are available and used to handling [temperature-sensitive] pharmaceutical products?” she asked.

Share Your Thoughts

When do you expect the Covid-19 vaccine to be available for you? Join the conversation below.

States, big cities and U.S. territories are among the 64 federally designated places that will receive the vaccines and decide when and where they will be administered. Government officials said Saturday they expect the initial doses to arrive at 145 sites on Monday. It will be up to the states not to mismanage the complex task of making sure the right number of doses get to the right places at the right times.

When Minnesota gets the 46,800 initial doses it expects in the coming week, they will be split between health-care workers and residents and employees of long-term care facilities. At first, they will go to 25 hospitals or large pharmacies capable of handling ultracold storage. Those places will use some and distribute the rest to 118 other locations.

New Mexico will send some of its initial 17,550 doses to five major hospitals that can handle ultracold storage, for distribution to health-care workers. A state health-department warehouse in Albuquerque will get the rest of the doses, break them up into truck shipments and send them to 32 other sites, where they must be administered within five days.

Kentucky has said it would distribute most of its 38,000 initial doses to long-term care facilities through CVS Health Corp. and Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc., which have federal contracts for that job. The other 12,000 doses will go to health-care workers.

Hospitals

Once hospitals get their doses, they need to make sure the vaccines don’t spoil before they go into people’s arms, and that none go to waste.

Before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized the vaccine on Friday, hospitals performed vaccination dry runs, checked backup power and temperature settings for freezers and rushed to decide who would get shots first.

To choreograph the vaccine’s arrival, hospitals have put employees on notice about the deliveries. Some staffers have hunted down photos of packaging to minimize the risk that boxes could be left unattended on loading docks, said Jessica Daley, a pharmacist and executive with Premier Inc., which contracts with pharmaceutical and other medical-supply manufacturers on behalf of hospitals.

Ultracold storage units at Cleveland Clinic capable of storing the Pfizer vaccine.

Photo: Cleveland Clinic

“Everyone is very focused on ensuring that receipt of these products goes perfectly according to plan,” she said.

At Mass General Brigham, a pharmacist likely will be notified by courier of the vaccine’s arrival, said Paul Biddinger, the Boston-based hospital system’s medical director for emergency preparedness. Mass General Brigham will store its allotment in a central location before distributing it to a dozen sites, using bar codes to track deliveries.

There are exacting procedures for retrieving the vials for vaccinations. Pfizer’s containers can be opened only twice a day, and can’t stay open for more than three minutes at a time, Dr. Daley said. Smaller boxes with trays of vials can be opened for no more than three minutes, and they can’t be outside ultracold temperatures more than once every two hours.

People getting vaccinated must be moved through the line at a steady clip so the doses don’t go bad. Hospitals must stagger appointments to avoid crowding, and keep those waiting socially distanced. A missed appointment could leave hospitals with unused doses that must be thrown out, said Dr. Biddinger. “We really don’t want to waste any single dose,” he said.

Long-term care

Long-term care facilities are expected to get most of their vaccines through CVS and Walgreens, though some also will use smaller pharmacies. Each chain said it expects to receive supplies via FedEx or UPS in around 1,000 hubs, nearly all at pharmacies.

From those hubs, teams of pharmacists and other staffers will fan out to long-term care facilities, with some taking doses in small refrigerated totes. Walgreens said it is supplying about 30,000 facilities, and CVS is working with more than 40,000, so far.

“We just press ‘go’ and start running,” said Rina Shah, Walgreens vice president for pharmacy operations and services.

Pharmacies also are preparing for Covid-19 vaccines besides Pfizer’s, including one from Moderna Inc. that is under consideration for emergency authorization and could be cleared by the FDA this month.

Trucks carrying the first shipment of the Covid-19 vaccines leave Pfizer’s facility in Kalamazoo, Mich.

Photo: jeff kowalsky/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Brad Phillips, director of operations for long-term care at Thrifty White Pharmacy, a regional chain based in Plymouth, Minn., that is supplying the vaccine to 240 facilities in North Dakota and Minnesota, said he expects to arrive at the company’s headquarters pharmacy around 6 a.m. on Dec. 28, the designated start of the long-term-care rollout in Minnesota.

If it is authorized, he and about a half-dozen colleagues will head to a nursing home in the Minneapolis area in a company van with coolers of the Moderna vaccine. There, he said, he will don a gown, mask and gloves and enter the rooms of residents to inject them.

After weeks of planning, Mr. Phillips said, he is excited to start. “As we look at the impact on people and the health-care system,” he said, “it is the biggest and most important thing I’ve been involved with.”

—Melanie Evans, Paul Ziobro, Joe Barrett, Doug Cameron, Jennifer Smith and Alison Slider contributed to this article.

Write to Sarah Krouse at [email protected], Jared S. Hopkins at [email protected] and Anna Wilde Mathews at [email protected]

Appeared in the December 14, 2020, print edition as ‘Pfizer Begins Mass Shipping Of Vaccines.’

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summerfieldhealth · 4 years ago

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What You Need to Know About Covid-19 testing kits

If you are located in Wolverhampton or surrounding areas in the UK, getting access to a private coronavirus test can be quite quick and reliable. There are different types of testing kits available, depending on the need and convenience of the person looking to get tested.

Doing a private coronavirus test is useful if you feel that you have been exposed to the Covid-19 virus. The test can give you peace of mind and ensure that you are not a risk to people around you in case you are not infected. Doctors in Wolverhampton or elsewhere are also authorised to issue ‘fit for travel’ certificates for people who wish to travel and whose test results are negative.

Types of test kits

Home testing kits: These mail-order PCR testing kits can be self-administered from the comfort of your home. It comes with simple instructions on how to do the test and includes special delivery postage to send the sample back to the testing centre. Purchasing this kit does not require you to fill out a ‘symptom questionnaire’.

Collection at clinic kits: This test can be self-administered in your car without having to enter the private clinic. The swab can be sent to the testing facility by special delivery post or courier service the same day. Such collection clinics are present in multiple locations in and around Shrewsbury and Wolverhampton. If you need proof of being Covid-19 negative for the purpose of travel, you can pay the extra amount towards the certificate while purchasing the testing kit. You should also ensure that the certificate is signed by the doctor in Wolverhampton or other city for it to be valid.

Test kits for employees: A company can purchase test kits in bulk at a discount for their employees for the sake of business continuity planning.

Antibody testing kits: This test allows you to figure out if you have been infected by Covid-19 earlier. It is a finger prick test, and you can get the result almost immediately.

These test kits are cost-effective and provide accurate results with a quick turnaround time. All test results except the antibody test take just 24hrs- 48hrs to be processed. Once you receive your kit, you need to register it online. The tests purchased through private clinics do not impact the availability of testing kits supplied through government schemes for NHS facilities. You can also self-refer yourself for a test if you feel the need for it.

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pkstudiosindia · 4 years ago

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Coronavirus: Schools sent home testing kit email in ‘error’ – BBC News

Featured Post in Water Filter India dot com - Water Filter India

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The Department of Education (DE) has referred to as an email to colleges from a authorities division “regrettable”.

Schools throughout Northern Ireland obtained an email from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) on Saturday.

It stated they’d obtain 10 home testing kits for Covid-19 by 20:00 BST on Monday.

It referred to colleges as “care homes” and stated somebody needed to be accessible to just accept supply of the kits.

According to DE, the email was attributable to an “automation error”.

Schools in Northern Ireland are to be supplied with home testing kits for folks of pupils with signs of Covid-19.

The kits are supposed to permit households who can’t journey to a testing centre to hold out a take a look at for coronavirus.

Coronavirus: When and the place are you able to get a take a look at? NI pupils to put on face coverings in corridors

Education Minister Peter Weir had accepted an invite from DHSC to be a part of the scheme, which can also be being rolled out in England.

But DE had advised college principals that it might present Northern Ireland particular steerage on the supply of the kits.

Instead, colleges obtained an email from the DHSC in the UK at 14:00 BST on Saturday in which they have been described as “care homes”.

It stated kits can be delivered by 20:00 BST on Monday, after many faculties would have closed for the day.

Image copyright PA Media

“Please ensure that you or a member of your organisation are available to receive this delivery,” it stated.

“Note that you could settle for this supply.

“You should register every take a look at kit after the pattern has been collected, and earlier than it’s given to the courier.”

As a outcome, DE sent a subsequent email to colleges in Northern Ireland on Sunday in which it stated it was “conscious additional misguided email” had been sent out by the DHSC.

“It is regrettable that this has occurred,” DE stated.

“The division was assured by colleagues in DHSC that no additional emails of this nature can be sent.

“Unfortunately this email was the results of an automation error.

“You can have observed from the title and content material that this was not supposed for colleges.”

The division additionally stated it was working to make sure no additional emails have been sent in error, however advised colleges to disregard any that arrived.

“We are additionally urgently in search of readability with DHSC across the standing of supply of take a look at kits, however please be assured that no college workers are anticipated to take receipt of testing kits or keep out of regular college hours in expectation of supply,” DE stated.

The division additionally stated it was creating steerage on the provision and use of home testing kits by colleges with the Department of Health in Northern Ireland.

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endenogatai · 5 years ago

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Deliveroo criticized over “inadequate” PPE provision and income support for riders risking coronavirus exposure

UK food delivery giant Deliveroo has been called on to do more to protect riders’ incomes and safety during the coronavirus crisis. The ‘meals-on-wheels’ service couriers provide makes them key workers in a pandemic characterized by social distancing and ‘shelter in place’ lockdowns, is the key argument.

More than forty MPs from across the political spectrum — including the former leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn and veteran Conservative MP, Sir Peter Bottomley — have co-signed a letter urging the company to provide all riders with adequate personal protective equipment (PPE), given the risks faced to those who keep working doing deliveries during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The letter also calls for riders who contract the disease or need to self isolate because of exposure risk to be given “full pay” — rather than the £100 per week Deliveroo has sets aside for riders via a coronavirus emergency fund.

The MPs argue the fund “is simply not enough to compensate a courier for having to self-isolate and forces many to work through potentially early symptoms in the hope of it not being COVID-19″.

“The fund has also proven to be inaccessible for many riders as they are not able to meet the eligibility criteria, as they have not completed the numbers of orders required. The fund should be there to assist everyone during this testing time; self isolation should not be a privilege,” they add.

The letter also calls for a “minimum standards guarantee” — given couriers’ key worker role delivery food during the crisis — arguing they should be provided with “a real living wage plus costs, holiday pay and sick pay”.

Another demand is for Deliveroo to allow “high risk” couriers — such as those who have pre-existing health conditions that may make them more vulnerable to the virus — to self isolate for 12 weeks with “full pay”.

Regular testing for riders is another demand.

The MPs also call for a halt to terminations until the end of the crisis, arguing: “It is clear that Deliveroo headquarters staff is stretched and does not have adequate time and resources to investigate customer and restaurant complaints which could lead to riders being unfairly terminated.”

Contacted for a response to the MPs’ demands, Deliveroo aggressively rejected accusations it has been lax in providing riders with adequate PPE.

The MPs argue the company’s current opt-in system for PPE provisions is “inadequate and ineffective” — urging it to take a proactive approach instead by providing “necessary safety equipment to all”.

The letter also claims some riders that have opted in the system have not been provided with the promised PPE. “The riders ordered this PPE from Deliveroo on the 26th of March and have not yet received any provisions (14th of April),” they write. “Your negligence is putting your riders and your customers at risk, especially now that you are encouraging hospital staff to order from your platform.”

The Independent Workers Union of Great Britain’s (IWGB), which has been campaigning for Deliveroo couriers to gain workers rights — and has today launched a petition in support of the MPs’ demands to Deliveroo — told us that many riders still haven’t received any PPE after requesting it on March 26, querying how much PPE has been despatched by the company to its ‘30,000’-strong workforce to date.

The union also said it’s heard from riders who have received PPE who told it the amount provided — four masks and four small bottles of hand sanitizer — would only last them for around a week.

Asked about this, Deliveroo told us it has ordered 135,000 masks and 145,00 hand sanitizers for UK riders to date — though it did not provide a figure on how many items have actually been delivered to riders, saying only that it has delivered “tens of thousands” of masks and hand sanitizers.

Additionally, it said it has reimbursed all riders “up to £20” to cover any PPE and hand sanitiser they procure and pay for themselves — as an interim policy.

On pay, Deliveroo claimed the £100 per week emergency provision it offers for COVID-19 sick (or isolating) riders, via its emergency fund, is higher than the rate of Statutory Sick Pay available to employees.

On the call for a minimum standards guarantee, Deliveroo reiterated its long-standing argument that riders value the flexibility afforded by its business model which involves them working as independent contractors, not contracted workers.

It also disputes that the IWGB’s campaign for riders to gain workers’ rights has widespread support among Deliveroo riders. But it noted that it has continued to call for updates to UK employment law which would enable it to provide more support for riders without jeopardizing flexibility.

It also told us it was involved in providing input to the government when it was working on support measures for self employed people during COVID-19. This support can cover riders, per Deliveroo, which notes that anyone who has been self employed for more than a year will receive three months of their average earnings based on previous years under this national government scheme.

Even if riders continue to ride and earn during the crisis the support still applies, it added. On vulnerable people, its line is therefore that it would never suggest such people ride during this time.

Rather it suggests they seek support under the government’s Self Employment Income Support Scheme, as well as the wider UK social security system.

On rider terminations, Deliveroo disputed that it is unable to properly focus on this area during the pandemic, arguing that contract terminations are an important safety tool at this time — such as in instances where riders have ignored public health requirements to be socially distant when making deliveries.

The company added an option for customers to request so-called ‘contactless’ deliveries early on in the crisis in Europe, removing the requirement that couriers hand food packages direct to customers. Though it was only optional at that point.

On testing, Deliveroo said it has worked closely with the government to ensure riders are entitled to claim free COVID-19 tests — noting that riders were in the first group of people outside of the National Health Service and care home staff able to be able to access these tests.

However the company is not itself sourcing and making tests available to riders. Rather it’s indicating they do the leg work of ordering them via the government’s online self-service portal.

The UK government, meanwhile, has faced weeks of sustained criticism for failing to provide enough tests for people who need them, with accusations of inadequate provision and inaccessible test centre locations which require people to have a car to access a test continuing to trouble Boris Johnson’s government.

So Deliveroo’s message that riders essentially ‘fall back’ on government testing provision may offer little comfort for workers at a front line of exposure to the virus.

In a statement responding to the MP’s letter Deliveroo added:

At Deliveroo, riders are at the heart of everything we do and we are working hard to support them during this unprecedented time. This includes distributing PPE kit to riders across the UK, supporting riders financially if they are unwell and keeping riders safe through contact-free delivery.

We are incredibly grateful and proud of the vital role riders are playing in their communities, helping the public, including the vulnerable and isolated, receive the food they need and want. We have dedicated teams on hand to support riders every step of the way through this crisis.

The London-based food delivery giant has raised some $1.5BN in venture capital to date, according to Crunchbase, including a whopping $575M round led by Amazon last year.

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pharmaphorumuk · 5 years ago

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Smartphone UTI test available at home during COVID-19 lockdown

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, Healthy.io has launched a smartphone-based diagnostic for urinary tract infections available to women at home, without a trip to the doctor or pharmacist.

The new service comes amid concerns that some people are deciding to stay away from healthcare services during the COVID-19 crisis, either to avoid adding to the stress on the NHS or for fear of being exposed to the coronavirus.

Healthy.io launched its first Dip.io UTI test kit in the UK through Boots and Day Lewis Pharmacies last year, but now says women can use the new Velieve service to get “a test, diagnosis and antibiotic treatment without leaving the house.”

The company also says it is “significantly subsidising” the service of the next 60 days as the COVID-19 lockdown continues, reducing the cost to the patient to £10.

UTIs – also known as cystitis – are one of the most common types of infection dealt with by GPs, accounting for an estimated 3% of all visits. In England alone, that adds up to around 10 million consultations a year.

A Public Health Survey suggested recently that 95% of women with UTI symptoms visit a doctor and 74% take antibiotics to resolve them.

Healthy.io’s Velieve test combines the traditional dipstick test used by GPs and a pop-up cup to collect a urine sample with a coloured panel that can be used to get a diagnosis using a dedicated smartphone app. It is carried out with guidance from Emily, an in-app nurse who facilitates the test step-by-step.

To make it suitable for use at home, the company has now partnered with online clinician firm Medicspot to launch a new service that does away with a face-to-face healthcare consultation, which it says is a first for the UK market.

The urine testing kit can be ordered and delivered to a home within hours, and after testing an online clinician will diagnose whether the patient has a UTI.

If the result is positive, antibiotic treatment can be ordered for another £15 and delivered by courier to their door “within…three hours”, according to Healthy.io.

That is only the case however for patients living within its initial roll-out area in central London, although the company says it plans to expand the service to the Greater London area in the coming weeks.

“Traditionally, women suffering from a UTI need to secure a GP appointment for treatment and if they are prescribed antibiotics, they need to pick the medication up from a pharmacist,” according to the Israeli start-up.

“Now, women suffering from the painful condition no longer need to leave their homes and risk exposure to COVID-19 for diagnosis and treatment.”

The Velieve test is the only home urinalysis kit with US and EU approval, it says.

The post Smartphone UTI test available at home during COVID-19 lockdown appeared first on .

from https://pharmaphorum.com/news/smartphone-uti-test-available-at-home-during-covid-19-lockdown/

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bloodtestlondon · 5 years ago

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Order Most Affordable Home Testing Kit for Coronavirus to Test

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easyfoodnetwork · 5 years ago

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Is It Safe to Order Delivery During the Coronavirus Pandemic?

Ordering takeout or delivery is the responsible alternative to dining in a restaurant. | Photo: Tricky_Shark/Shutterstock

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, cities and states are increasingly limiting restaurants to takeout and delivery only. Here’s how you can best avoid health risks and support your favorite local eateries.

As the novel coronavirus continues to spread across the United States, many states and cities have ordered all bars and restaurants to shut down except for takeout and delivery. But even in areas where dine-in service is still permitted, the responsible thing to do is forgo a sit-down meal in favor of to-go or, preferably, delivery options. Public health experts, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the White House have called for the population to curtail mass gatherings and personal interaction — like the kind that can take place in crowded food and drink establishments — in an effort to help “flatten the curve” by slowing the transmission of COVID-19, preventing a spike in cases that could overwhelm hospitals.

For those who are fortunate enough to be able to follow the recommendation for social distancing by staying home or otherwise limiting their contact with others, the idea of ordering food delivery may raise a couple of questions: First, is it safe? Second, is it ethical to expose a delivery worker to the risks you seek to avoid?

The answer to the first question is generally yes, with some stipulations. There is currently no evidence of food being associated with COVID-19 transmission, according to both the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), although Vox reports that there’s “growing evidence of fecal to oral transmission, meaning you can ingest the virus shed in feces, through inadequate hand washing or contaminated food and water.” It’s worth noting, however, that restaurants have long been required to follow food safety rules, in addition to extra measures now put into place in the wake of COVID-19. If you’re unsure about a restaurant’s food-handling standards, you can check its score on your local health department’s website. When it comes to the virus, the greater transmission safety risks are largely associated with interacting with other people.

The answer to the second question is a little more complicated. Yes, you should be conscious of the reality that many delivery workers currently face: a physically demanding job, theft and crime, low wages, a lack of employee benefits, and, amid this pandemic, higher exposure to customers who may be sick. But at the same time, workers rely on those delivery orders to pay their bills and support their families. “Everyone has said the same thing: If you are sick, just stay home,” one gig worker told Wired’s Arielle Pardes. “But if I stay home, I don’t get sick leave, and I don’t get paid.” In those cases, customers not ordering food could end up hurting delivery workers more, not to mention the restaurants that prepare the meals.

In a pandemic, there are no clear-cut, perfect solutions, but there are ways you as an individual can make choices that will mitigate transmission risks for both you and the workers you rely on to get your meal and let you order with a clearer conscience. Here are some suggestions:

Consider which ordering method is right for you

If your favorite restaurants have in-house delivery options, consider ordering through them directly instead of going through third-party apps, which not only take commission fees that can cut into restaurants’ already razor-thin margins, but have also been called out for questionable tactics that frustrate restaurant owners, as Eater’s editor-in-chief Amanda Kludt wrote in 2019.

But in the event that your preferred restaurants only deliver through platforms like Grubhub or Uber Eats, there are other factors you can take into consideration. For example, which companies are providing protections for at-risk delivery workers or helping restaurants whose business is plummeting? Here’s what some of those apps are doing:

Uber Eats said it would provide up to two weeks of paid sick leave for couriers who are diagnosed with COVID-19 or who are quarantined by public health authorities, with the stipulation that workers must have done at least one Uber Eats delivery in the 30 days before March 6 (the policy is effective until April 6). The company also said that it would provide drivers with disinfectants for workers’ cars. In addition, the company said it would waive customers’ delivery fees for more than 100,000 “independent” restaurants across the U.S. and Canada in an effort to drive sales, and has added a feature allowing customers to donate to restaurants directly in the app.

Postmates launched a relief fund to support medical checkups and to cover two weeks of paid sick leave for couriers who test positive for COVID-19, with the stipulation that those workers must have completed at least one Postmates delivery since February 25. The company also said it would temporarily waive commission fees for businesses in the Bay Area.

DoorDash (which also owns Caviar) said it would provide up to two weeks of paid sick leave for couriers who are diagnosed with COVID-19, are quarantined by a doctor or public health authorities, or are housemates with someone who fulfills one of those criteria, with the stipulation that those workers must have been active on DoorDash for at least 60 days, and must have completed at least 30 deliveries in the last 30 days. The company also said it would distribute hand sanitizer and gloves to workers in affected areas. In addition, the company said “independent” restaurants could join the platform and pay zero commissions for 30 days, that existing restaurant partners wouldn’t have to pay commission fees on pick-up orders, and that there would be “additional commission reductions for eligible merchants.”

Instacart said it would provide up to two weeks of paid sick leave for couriers who are diagnosed with COVID-19 or who are quarantined by public health authorities, with the stipulation that those workers must have been active on Instacart in the last 14 days, and must have been working with Instacart for a minimum of 30 days. The company also said that customer ratings of workers wouldn’t affect access to orders — a real concern — and that low ratings would be automatically forgiven during this period. In light of an ongoing worker strike, Instacart also announced it would be manufacturing its own hand sanitizer and distributing free safety kits — with a mask, hand sanitizer, and thermometer — to full-service shoppers.

Grubhub (which also owns Seamless) said it would offer up to two weeks of paid sick leave for drivers who are diagnosed with COVID-19, ordered by a doctor or public health authorities to self-isolate, or have had their account due to risk of spreading COVID-19, with the stipulation that those workers must have completed at least one Grubhub delivery in the last 30 days. The company also said it would defer the collection of $100 million in commissions that it charges to independent restaurants. Note that deferral isn’t the same as waiving fees; as Eater’s Nick Mancall-Bitel reports, after the end of the deferral period, “restaurants will have four weeks to repay the deferred commissions, after a two-week grace period in which they make the regular commission payments of between 15 and 30 percent.” More fine print includes “a stipulation that restaurants agree to keep Grubhub as a delivery service for one year after signing onto the program,” per Mancall-Bitel.

Minimize human contact

As Michael Knight, an assistant professor of medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, told Eater in early March, “it’s the people, not the food, that is the issue” when it comes to COVID-19 transmission in the context of eating. When you have prolonged contact with others, the CDC’s recommendation is to maintain a distance of six feet to avoid exposure to respiratory droplets that may carry the virus.

If you opt to pick up a to-go order from a restaurant, avoid peak hours so there are fewer people to potentially come into contact with in line at the restaurant.

But if you’re sick, at high risk of becoming seriously ill from COVID-19, or otherwise able to stay at home as a social distancing measure, choose delivery instead of takeout to avoid interacting with more people outside.

When ordering delivery, request contactless delivery — in which couriers drop off the food at your door or at a designated location without any personal interaction — to reduce the risk of person-to-person transmission for both you and the delivery worker. Some third-party apps, like Postmates, have introduced no-contact delivery in easy dropdown options, while others are encouraging customers to type in a note specifying drop-off requests when placing an order.

Discard or disinfect surfaces that may be contaminated

According to the CDC, “It may be possible that a person can get COVID-19 by touching a surface or object that has the virus on it and then touching their own mouth, nose, or possibly their eyes, but this is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads.”

That said, you should still take the precaution of either immediately throwing away packaging materials that come with your food delivery (e.g., paper or plastic bag, receipts, menus, etc.), or be prepared to disinfect the surfaces in your home that they come into contact with. Researchers have found that the virus can survive on surfaces for a few hours to a few days, depending on the surface material.

Wash your hands and maintain good hygiene practices

Hand washing remains one of the single most important things people can do to protect themselves and others, Amy R. Sapkota, a professor of applied environmental health at the University of Maryland School of Public Health, told Eater earlier. After touching potentially contaminated surfaces, and before and after eating, wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. If soap and water aren’t available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer.

Other recommended hygiene practices include not touching your face with unwashed hands, as well as making sure to cough or sneeze into a tissue (or, if that’s not available, into a bent elbow) and then immediately washing your hands afterward.

Refrain from sharing

In Sapkota’s words: “In general, it’s wise not to share drinks or utensils. Particularly in this current situation, I think it would be wise not to share food.” If you need to split a shared takeout order, divide up the food onto separate plates before eating with your own utensils.

Tip generously and rate highly

The absolute minimum acceptable tip for any food delivery, as Helen Rosner wrote for Eater in 2016, is $5. In an honest-to-god pandemic, consider doubling, or even tripling that, depending on how much you ordered and your financial situation. Think of it this way: Another human being risked exposure to a highly infectious virus so that you could eat without taking a single step outside. That has to be worth something.

Another way to show your gratitude to the workers feeding you is to leave high ratings, since so many gig workers’ livelihoods depend on maintaining good ratings to be able to access their work. As Pardes wrote for Wired: “Workers with higher ratings get preference on orders, which means they get to work more. And many platforms have a threshold of how low ratings can get before a courier is bumped off the service altogether.”

Consider also leaving a nice review for the restaurant, since they, too, can be helped or hurt by what customers say on sites like Yelp and Google.

Support restaurants, staff, and gig workers in other ways

Restaurants, already notoriously difficult to operate in the black, are facing a huge loss in business, and with it, the ability to keep staff employed. If you’d like to help your favorite restaurant weather this storm, some have suggested buying restaurant gift cards or merchandise like shirts and cookbooks to help free up cash flow at this critical time. Others may consider contributing to funds for bartenders, servers, and other members of the service industry, whether through organized relief funds or by directly Venmo-ing workers in need.

The more advocacy-minded may take this crisis as an opportunity to press companies and the government to better address the issues that restaurants and workers are facing on a structural level. Mounting pressure from the public has coincided with companies like Instacart and Postmates introducing sick pay and other measures to support workers. Lawmakers, restaurant owners, and the public are calling for federal aid and relief. “We are so fucked if the federal government doesn’t immediately pass a massive stimulus bill for the hospitality sector and small business in general,” chef David Chang tweeted on March 16.

If they think restaurants are a “non-essential business”....big mistake. If they only help airlines and cruise ships but pass over hard working cooks, servers and mom & pop shops...I swear to fucking god I’m gonna run for public office

— Dave Chang (@davidchang) March 16, 2020

After all, if the restaurants that cook your food cease to exist — along with the millions of jobs they provide — then what are you going to get delivered while you’re in self-quarantine? As Eater’s Hillary Dixler Canavan writes: “Independent operators need a major infusion of cash — cash that’s more readily available from the government than from their stressed-out customers — to make it. They need rent alleviation, eviction protection, and tax deferrals, at a minimum, to live through this body blow.”

Now go wash your hands.

This post was last updated at 10:25 a.m. on April 6, 2020.

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Ordering takeout or delivery is the responsible alternative to dining in a restaurant. | Photo: Tricky_Shark/Shutterstock

Consider which ordering method is right for you

Minimize human contact

If you opt to pick up a to-go order from a restaurant, avoid peak hours so there are fewer people to potentially come into contact with in line at the restaurant.

Discard or disinfect surfaces that may be contaminated

Wash your hands and maintain good hygiene practices

Refrain from sharing

Tip generously and rate highly

Consider also leaving a nice review for the restaurant, since they, too, can be helped or hurt by what customers say on sites like Yelp and Google.

Support restaurants, staff, and gig workers in other ways

— Dave Chang (@davidchang) March 16, 2020

Now go wash your hands.

This post was last updated at 10:25 a.m. on April 6, 2020.

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