A freighter ship in Lake Superior collided with something underwater, U.S. Coast Guards says
A freighter in Lake Superior hit something underwater on Saturday and started taking on water, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday announced that the state has put out a revised rule which follows a "symptom-based approach" to quarantining students, meaning asymptomatic children exposed to COVID-19 in classrooms could be sent back to school by parents.
"If somebody is symptomatic, of course they stay home. If there's a close contact, but somebody has not developed any symptoms -- you monitor them, you notify the parent," DeSantis said. "The parent always has the right to have their kids stay home, if they think that's in the best interest of the student and the family 100 per cent, we would not want to intrude on that. But if a parent has a healthy child, that child has a right to be in school."
DeSantis said the new policy recognizes that quarantining healthy students is "incredibly damaging" for students' educational advancement and disruptive for families.
Dr. Joe Ladapo, Florida's new state surgeon general and Department of Health secretary, said, "It's also important to respect the rights of parents as the governor described.
"We respect that some parents may be less comfortable sending their kid back to school after being exposed. And so the new rule allows for those parents to keep their children home for a period of time. And the new role also allows for parents who are more comfortable letting their healthy child return to school," Lapado said.
The decision has been criticized by school officials who are in favour of COVID-19 preventative measures such as mask mandates and additional quarantining.
"This rule is likely to promote the spread of COVID-19 by preventing schools from implementing the common-sense masking and quarantine policies recommended by the vast majority of health care professionals, including those here in Alachua County," said Alachua County Public Schools superintendent Dr. Carlee Simon in a statement. "The State is, in fact, doubling down on policies that may ultimately put students, staff and the entire community at greater risk."
With the spread of the Delta variant driving a surge of cases as the new school year opened, schools in some states have faced difficulties balancing COVID-19 prevention with differing statewide orders.
Alachua County is among those in Florida whose school systems have come under fire from DeSantis for defying the state's ban on mask mandates.
"We will be reviewing the new rules and any notifications we receive from the State with our legal counsel and medical advisors. In the meantime, we will continue to follow the masking and quarantine policies currently in place in our schools," Simon said.
Regarding the quarantining of students exposed, recent research has found that regular COVID-19 testing of all students and staff in schools can catch positive cases that symptom-based testing may miss.
As many as nine in 10 cases among students and seven in 10 cases among staff may be missed by conventional reporting mechanisms, according to research published Wednesday in the journal JAMA Network Open.
For the study, students and staff in three schools in Omaha, Nebraska, participated in a weekly PCR-testing program between November 9 and December 11 last year. Over the study period, nearly 2,900 self-collected saliva samples from 458 staff and 315 students with no symptoms were tested.
Among those, 22 students and 24 staff members tested positive, a higher rate than those identified through symptom-based testing strategies, the researchers noted. The case rate was 7% among students and 5.3% among staff in the weekly testing program, compared to 1.2% among students and 2.1% among staff using conventional reporting mechanisms. Cases detected even exceeded the infection rates reported at the county level.
The researchers said that the differences in community-case rates and those among students and staff in the weekly testing program suggest that the strategy may help mitigate school-based transmission risk.
A freighter in Lake Superior hit something underwater on Saturday and started taking on water, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.
Israel on Saturday carried out its largest hostage rescue operation since the latest war with Hamas began, taking four to safety out of central Gaza amid the military's heavy air and ground assault. At least 94 dead Palestinians, including children, were brought to local hospitals, a health official said.
Kate, the Princess of Wales, apologized for missing Saturday's final rehearsal before the Trooping the Color parade in honor of the king's birthday.
Decorated figure skater Tessa Virtue and Toronto Maple Leaf Morgan Rielly have hired a lobbyist as they seek permission to paint the exterior of their Rosedale heritage home, despite objections from city staff.
Frederiksen was rushed to a hospital for a check-up soon after, and though unharmed, she was "shaken by the incident," according to her office, adding that she has canceled her program for the day to rest.
The Olympic rings were mounted to the iconic Parisian landmark on Friday to mark 50 days until the sports world gathers in the French capital for the quadrennial sports festival.
Following a major water main break and calls from the city to reduce water consumption, some Calgary businesses are making extra efforts to conserve.
A thick and heavy fog has been laying siege to the skies over St. John’s, and drawing a heavy toll from some airplane passengers who’ve seen their travel plans pummelled with no end in sight.
A federal judge in New York has given the go-ahead to a Long Island woman's class action lawsuit that claims consumers are being duped by Cold Stone Creamery when they purchase certain flavours that "do not contain their represented ingredients."
Showing off the latest purchase in his Eaton's collection, Corey Quintaine joked he is rebuilding the former flagship store that used to sit at 320 Portage Avenue one Facebook Marketplace purchase at a time.
After learning about food security at school, 11-year-old Violette Ferguson wants fresh eggs and to change the rules around chickens in the city.
An Ontario powerlifter caught a mild cold last year. Six days later, he was fighting for his life in the ICU.
Marking a milestone, Lakeshore resident Olga White celebrated her 107th birthday in style Wednesday.
The municipality of Tantramar, N.B., is holding a sale to get rid of surplus items it acquired after the Town of Sackville amalgamated with smaller communities last year.
For several weeks, a mysterious social media user has apparently been leaving $50 bills hidden across Metro Vancouver.
A statue dedicated to the Royal Regina Rifles Regiment has been officially unveiled in France just ahead of the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
A Cape Breton is this year's recipient of the McEuen Scholarship, which gives him basically a full ride to the medical school at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.
Mounties in Kelowna nabbed a would-be burglar with an apparent sweet tooth over the weekend.