Health
‘He Had A Life Ahead Of Him’: Remembering An Essential Worker Lost To COVID
The coronavirus has taken the lives of over 5,600 Connecticut residents. Urbano Sifuentes of West Hartford was among them. For 25 years, Sifuentes worked as a janitor at the University of Hartford. Speaking in Spanish, his daughter Rosemary Torres remembered him as a generous man who worked hard and had a great sense of humor.…
Read MoreCoronavirus Shut Down Her Business In The Spring. Now She Dances In A T. Rex Costume
What would you do if your business plummeted in the middle of a pandemic? This is a very real scenario for a number of Vermonters, and when it happened to Burlington resident Jenny Rooke, she decided to dance — in an inflatable T. rex costume. Jenny Rooke co-owns Rookie’s Root Beer with her husband, Dave.…
Read MoreOne Challenge To Reopening Schools: Finding Enough Teachers
Just after Thanksgiving, Falmouth High School Principal Mary Gans got a call: the school had a positive case. Twelve of her staff members were considered “close contacts” and had to quarantine immediately. “I just [did] not have the ability to cover all of their classes, even for the rest of the day,” Gans said. “There just weren’t the…
Read More‘As Scary As A Virus In Some Ways’: Mental Health Concerns Grow As Remote Schooling Continues
Across the country, there are middle and high school teachers begging their students to turn on their Zoom cameras. You can read their angst-ridden posts on Twitter and Facebook. I can hear their pleas coming from the laptop in my 14-year-old son’s bedroom (he rarely turns on his camera, by the way). The frustration and…
Read MoreThese Youth Mentors Search For Students Gone AWOL In A Pandemic
John Williams, who works on behalf of the public schools in Brockton, wanted to know why 16-year-old Glen hadn’t logged into his remote classes since the school year began in September. So he called Glen’s mother, who said she’s tried and tried to get her son out of bed and online, but he won’t listen.…
Read MoreEarly Indications Suggest Far Fewer Rural Maine Students Looking To Attend College
Between remote and hybrid classes, the pandemic has drastically altered education for high schoolers this fall and left many students and parents frustrated and dissatisfied. And those feelings could be having a major impact on how many students — particularly those from rural Maine — may choose to go on to college. As the school…
Read MoreClients, Staff Say Major New Hampshire Addiction Treatment Center Mishandled COVID Outbreak
The minute Peter Rosasco walked into Green Mountain Treatment Center in Effingham, he knew there would be problems. “It was just a ticking time bomb, that place,” Rosasco said. It was mid-November, and his mother, Susan Axelrod, was bringing Rosasco to residential treatment as part of a plea deal he reached over recent drug charges.…
Read MoreVermont Works To Slow COVID-19 Outbreaks At Nursing Homes As Vaccine Approaches
In recent weeks, eight of Vermont’s eldercare homes have experienced outbreaks of the coronavirus, and the vast majority of the state’s recent COVID-19 fatalities have come from those events. Nursing homes and other long-term care facilities that house elderly people are some of the most at risk for outbreaks of COVID-19. Residents are often housed…
Read MoreMore Massachusetts Residents Than Ever Have The Coronavirus. Where They Caught It Is The Mystery
Like many people who get COVID-19, Maddy Alvarez, a 35-year-old Revere resident, can’t be certain how the coronavirus got into her home. But once it did, it was uncontainable. First, her husband Marco came down with it. He had muscle aches and a fever, but he had also experienced those symptoms just a few weeks prior. He tested negative…
Read MoreCOVID-19 Closed Showers for the Homeless. Quick Thinkers Came to the Rescue.
This spring, precautions against COVID-19 closed some of the few showers open to people who are homeless and living outdoors, including one in the basement of the Duffy Health Center in Hyannis. Now, with a little ingenuity and some help from the state, showers are back — in a special trailer that meets COVID-19 protocol.…
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