Test Results Come Back Negative?: Don’t Assume You Don’t Have It If You’re Symptomatic, Doctor Says

The New York Times: If You Have Coronavirus Symptoms, Assume You Have The Illness, Even If You Test Negative
You had some exposures that may put you at risk for coronavirus. A few days later you come down with a bad cough yourself and feel a little short of breath and really tired. You take your temperature: 101 degrees. A fever. You suspect you might have Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. The days roll into each other, and your doctor urges you to stay home unless your condition worsens. You feel pretty bad, though, and finally get an appointment. (Krumholz, 4/1)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: Healthy Enough For Home Treatment? Here’s How Experts Say Coronavirus Patients Should Isolate 
Thousands of Louisiana residents are isolating themselves at home after testing positive for the novel coronavirus or after they have experienced symptoms that suggest they may be infected. And doctors say the steps Ealem is taking, however difficult, are critical to protecting loved ones and slowing the spread of the disease. The people in home care often struggle with anxiety because of their condition and loneliness that comes with isolation. Their condition can also worsen, and there’s always the fear that they could infect loved ones. (Williams, 3/31)

WTOP: Doctors Advise Against Overusing Alcohol During Coronavirus Pandemic
It’s not unusual for people to turn to alcohol to ease anxiety, but doctors warn that overusing it can weaken your immune system and lead to dangerous behavior. “It is a depressant,” said Dr. Elspeth Cameron Ritchie, the psychiatry chairwoman at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. … During previous SARS and MERS pandemics, when people became unemployed and confined at home, Ritchie said the rate of suicide and domestic violence went up over time. (King, 3/30)

KQED: ‘Am I Going To Die?’ Alone And Scared, Confined Seniors Struggle With Anxiety 
[Diana] Fernandes is among the millions of elderly Californians who live alone amid a strange new reality imposed by the coronavirus. Confined indoors, they are safer from the threat of the virus, but increasingly vulnerable to isolation, fear and anxiety as their connections to the outside world shut down. Friends and volunteers can’t visit, and most senior centers are closed. (Hellerstein, 3/31)

The Wall Street Journal: Border Agents Change Practice On Immigrant Child Separation Over Coronavirus
The Trump administration is turning back immigrant children caught crossing the border illegally with their relatives, in a break from past practice, under emergency powers being invoked during the new coronavirus pandemic, three administration officials familiar with the matter said. Previously, border agents would have separated many of these children from family members if they weren’t parents or guardians. The children then would have been placed in the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services and treated as unaccompanied minors. (Hackman and Caldwell, 3/31)

Stat: Effort Aims To Provide Covid-19 Resources To Non-English Speakers In U.S.
Covid-19 is impacting lives across the U.S., and health officials are racing to provide communities with important information about the illness. But language divides are likely to put non-English speakers at greater risk. While some health information is being translated into commonly spoken languages including Spanish and Chinese, the U.S. is home to non-English speakers who speak any of more than 350 other languages. (Zia, 1/1)

NBC News: ‘Adding Insult To Injury’: Couples Struggle With IVF Cancellations Amid Coronavirus Pandemic
Every morning and evening for five days, Angie, 36, injected the flesh around her belly button with in vitro fertilization drugs to stimulate her ovaries to produce eggs. Her fertility doctor planned to harvest the eggs in a 15-minute surgical procedure about a week later. On the morning of the sixth day, March 20, Angie, who asked that her last name not be used out of concern that her employer would retaliate if it found out she was trying to conceive, was working at her home in Vancouver, British Columbia, when she got a call from a nurse at her fertility clinic. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the clinic was suspending all treatments and closing down. (Solon, 4/1)

The New York Times: Is It Time For Americans To Embrace The Bidet?
In recent weeks, as the coronavirus has tightened restrictions on public and private life, Americans have been hoarding toilet paper, their shopping carts piled high, as supplies were quickly depleted: the shelves, and sometimes whole aisles, bare. What we buy in times of crisis says a lot about who we are. “The pasta shelves are empty!” cried an older man stepping out of an Italian grocery store in a video from February. (Oldershausen, 4/1)

The New York Times: Stuck Inside? Keep Walking
Taking an extra 4,000 steps a day might reduce our risk of dying prematurely, even if those steps are not swift, according to a large-scale new study of moving and mortality. At a time when so many of us are confined to home and worried about whether we are being active enough, the study is especially inspiring in that the added steps do not have to come from running or other vigorous exercise. It finds that for every additional 4,000 steps someone takes in a day, even if it’s just ambling around the block or across the room, his or her risk of dying early from heart disease, cancer or any other cause drops by 50 percent or more. (Reynolds, 4/1)

WBUR: Feds Warn Merchants Not Make Coronavirus Treatment Claims
Health scams are popping up as the coronavirus health crisis grows around the country, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Trade Commission. The agencies warn about the proliferation of fraudulent products that claim to test for coronavirus and prevent or cure COVID-19. The FDA has sent warning letters to seven manufacturers of therapy products including essential oils, nasal sprays and herbal concoctions. (Peñaloza ,3/31)