Situation Report

Life Care Center of Kirkland (KIRO)

thehill.com - by Peter Sullivan - February 29, 2020

Officials on Saturday announced a possible outbreak of coronavirus at a nursing facility in Washington State, a serious situation given the risks the virus poses to elderly people.

The possible outbreak is at a long-term care facility in Kirkland, Wash., called Life Care Center, officials from Washington state and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on a media call Saturday. 

There are two presumptive positives associated with the facility, one a health care worker and the other a woman in her 70s. 

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ALSO SEE RELATED ARTICLE HERE - Health officials: Dozens at Kirkland nursing facility reporting symptoms that might suggest coronavirus

who.int - February 11, 2020

Quote from Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization:

"This is airborne, corona is airborne, it's more contagious and you have seen how it went into 24 countries although it's a small number of cases."

CLICK HERE - WHO - Transcript - Coronavirus press conference 11 February, 2020 (see page 10, of 15 page .PDF transcript here, and within attachment below)

CLICK HERE - WHO - Audio (click on February 11, and begin listening at the 40 minute mark)

CLICK HERE - WHO - Video (around the 47 minute mark - "airborne" statement of Dr. Tedros is blacked out)

CLICK HERE - STUDY - Record-Setting Ocean Warmth Continued in 2019

cnn.com - by  Ivana Kottasová - January 13, 2020

The world's oceans are now heating at the same rate as if five Hiroshima atomic bombs were dropped into the water every second, scientists have said.

A new study released on Monday showed that 2019 was yet another year of record-setting ocean warming, with water temperatures reaching the highest temperature ever recorded.

An international team of 14 scientists examined data going back to the 1950s, looking at temperatures from the ocean surface to 2,000 meters deep. The study, which was published in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences, also showed that the oceans are warming at an increasing speed.

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Permafrost, seen at the top of the cliff, melts into the Kolyma River outside Zyryanka, Russia, on July 4. Melting permafrost is altering Siberia's landscape and economy. (Michael Robinson Chavez/The Washington Post)

CLICK HERE - NOAA - 2019 Arctic Report Card

washingtonpost.com - by Andrew Freedman - December 10, 2019

The Arctic is undergoing a profound, rapid and unmitigated shift into a new climate state, one that is greener, features far less ice and emits greenhouse gas emissions from melting permafrost, according to a major new federal assessment of the region released Tuesday.

The consequences of these climate shifts will be felt far outside the Arctic in the form of altered weather patterns, increased greenhouse gas emissions and rising sea levels from the melting Greenland ice sheet and mountain glaciers.

The findings are contained in the 2019 Arctic Report Card, a major federal assessment of climate change trends and impacts throughout the region.