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Separated from loved ones for months, elderly face even lonelier holidays during the coronavirus pandemic

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Elderly people in nursing homes and assisted living facilities around the country haven’t been able to hug a loved one in many months because of the coronavirus pandemic. Now, many are facing their first Thanksgiving and possibly Christmas without them.



a person in glasses looking at the camera: Grace Barnum

© CNN
Grace Barnum

“I’m just waiting,” Grace Barnum, 76, a resident at Beechwood Long Term Care in New London, Connecticut, said. Fighting back tears, she added: “To be able to hug again.”



a man sitting on a bed: Cathy Corey said about not seeing loved ones: "it's like my heart gets ripped out sometimes."

© CNN
Cathy Corey said about not seeing loved ones: “it’s like my heart gets ripped out sometimes.”

Nursing homes and other facilities for the elderly were hit hard early on in the pandemic because the virus is so deadly among that population. There have been more than 70,000 deaths in long-term care facilities, and though the people there account for only about 8% of coronavirus cases, they made up 45% of deaths by early September, according

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World’s Biggest Glove Producer At Risk as Pandemic Hits Home

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(Bloomberg) — The new heart of Malaysia’s worrying virus resurgence is an unlikely place — the sprawling factory complex of the world’s largest maker of surgical gloves. It’s putting at risk not just a key export for the Southeast Asian manufacturing center, but also a nascent economic recovery.

The government on Monday ordered Top Glove Corp. to close 28 of its factories in phases, after its facility in Klang, Selangor state recorded 1,067 Covid-19 cases, out of 1,884 new daily cases in Malaysia. New infections continued and hit a record high of 2,188 on Tuesday, of which more than half came from the Teratai cluster linked to the company’s worker dormitories.

Top Glove said Wednesday that the high number of cases was due to increased testing, and that it expects the outbreak at its facilities to end in two-to-four weeks. On Wednesday, Malaysia recorded 970 new Covid-19 infections.

The

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Homeowners are remodeling in record numbers amid pandemic

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As people continue to spend more and more time in their homes, many are looking for ways to upgrade through remodeling. And it doesn’t take a big budget to do so.

MINNEAPOLIS — When Dave Fransen bought his first house in south Minneapolis 13 years ago, it was a true fixer upper. And he’s since built a new kitchen, garage and a backyard fence.

“It definitely needed some work,” said Fransen. “And I’ve just been ticking off projects here and there.”

But this year is his busiest yet, because, as the pandemic gets longer, so does his list of projects.

“When you’re at home a lot more, it’s easy to get more annoyed by the things that have always sort of annoyed you about your house,” said Fransen. “They get a little more amplified.”

That’s one reason homeowners nationwide are remodeling in record numbers. Home design website Houzz says leads

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Abilene contractors see more home remodeling work during pandemic

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Quarantined Abilenians have realized that home could be sweeter with some updates.



a man riding a skateboard up the side of a building: Gus Flores measures a length of tin before cutting it for a skirt for the portable building behind him owned by Melina Sterry (left) Friday Nov. 13, 2020. Flores works for The Honey Do Service, a general contractor.

© Ronald W. Erdrich/Reporter-News
Gus Flores measures a length of tin before cutting it for a skirt for the portable building behind him owned by Melina Sterry (left) Friday Nov. 13, 2020. Flores works for The Honey Do Service, a general contractor.

Jason Ramirez, owner of The Honey do Service of Abilene Inc., has hired more staff in recent months to meet the demand.

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“We’ve added more craftsmen. We’ve added another salesman,” Ramirez said. “We now have booked a month and a half out worth of work for my craftsmen.”

The current situation is much rosier than expected after the pandemic hit the Abilene area in mid-March with stay-at-home orders and school closures.

“At the beginning, it was scary,” said Ramirez, who has owned the franchise for five years.

“I was lucky…,” he added. “I had

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College students returning home face challenges amid COVID-19 pandemic

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CLOSE

Passengers traveling through the A.B. Won Pat International Airport on Guam are subjected to thermal imaging scans to measure body temperatures as authorities battle the spread of the coronavirus.

Pacific Daily News

As Thanksgiving approaches, thousands of Guam residents weigh the risk of pandemic travel. Among this group of people, college students face a daunting challenge: How to safely return home but avoid bringing a deadly virus.

In a country with 250,000 coronavirus deaths, universities nationwide are allowing students to go home for a long Thanksgiving break and finish their semesters remotely.

So what are experts recommending to students to reduce the possibility carrying the coronavirus with them?

Public Health website 

All college students returning to Guam are subject to quarantine. Proof of negative test results outside of Guam aren’t accepted.

The Department of Public Health and Social Services website delineates requirements prior to travel. Incoming passengers, regardless of

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Toronto Raptors Will Play Home Games in Florida Because of Pandemic

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The Toronto Raptors are heading south for the winter — at least for the start of it.

The Raptors announced Friday that they would begin the 2020-21 season based in Tampa, Fla., amid concerns about the coronavirus pandemic’s impact in Canada. In a statement, Masai Ujiri, the Raptors’ president of basketball operations, left open the possibility that the team could return to Toronto at some point this season. The Raptors are the only N.B.A. team based outside of the United States, and Canada has imposed strict measures about travel between the two countries. Cases of the coronavirus in the U.S. continue to skyrocket.

“So we’ll be away from our home and our fans for now,” Ujiri said in the statement. “They say absence makes the heart grow fonder. I’m not sure that’s possible for us — we love Toronto and Canada, and we know we have the best fans in

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Improve Pandemic Happy Hour With A Home Cocktail Machine

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The sameness of everything is wearing us all down. Wake up. Pull on sweatpants (or maybe one of these ridiculous onesies: a button-down shirt attached to sweatpants). Open your laptop. Zoom. Repeat. I’ve taken to moving my laptop from the office to the dining room table to the kitchen, sometimes pretending that I’m sitting in a coffee shop instead of in the same house I’ve been in for …. Ever…

Across much of the country, bars are restricted or closed and the number of people you can have at an indoor gathering is tightly constrained. So there’s no chatting with your local mixologist – and if you’re having a micro-wedding or other sanctioned gathering, for example, hiring a bartender may mean there isn’t room for Uncle Pete… which might be okay.

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Coronavirus pandemic is bringing rats, mice into Michigan homes

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Rats are coming into our homes. (Photo: Jon Mills, WZZM, Jon Mills, WZZM)

DETROIT – Can it get any more 2020 than this?

Now, we have rats.

Nearly 1 in 4 Michigan households are reporting an increase in rats and mice since the coronavirus pandemic began, according to a survey by a pest-management company.

There are some reasons for this.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, acknowledging the nation’s pandemic-related rodent problem, points out that restaurants have reduced service, which means fewer food scraps are ending up in the dumpsters on which rats and mice often feed.

And, according to Smith’s Pest Management, a California service that commissioned the survey via Google Surveys, our houses are the perfect substitute.

We’re home more, which means we’re producing more garbage. Nationwide, 1 in 3 households report a notable increase in garbage accumulation, the Smith’s survey said.

We’re also cleaning less,

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Congress heads home for Thanksgiving without pandemic relief deal

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Congress will head home for a week-long Thanksgiving holiday recess without passing any sort of compromise coronavirus relief bill as the U.S. death toll passes 250,000 and millions of Americans remain on unemployment.



a man wearing a suit and tie talking on a cell phone: Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer meet with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Nov. 12, 2020.

© J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer meet with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Nov. 12, 2020.

But there is some hope that renewed talks could see some sort of coronavirus relief aid in the coming weeks even with little time remaining on the legislative calendar before the end of the year.

Democratic aides have told ABC News that staffers of the congressional ‘Big Four’ met Thursday to discuss ways coronavirus relief could be tacked on to a must-pass spending bill that needs to clear both chambers of Congress by Dec. 11 to avert a government shutdown. The ‘Big Four’ includes House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority

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Doctor Says Stay Home This Thanksgiving Amid COVID-19 Pandemic : Shots

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With coronavirus cases surging and more than 250,000 dead, the CDC is recommending people not travel for Thanksgiving. And doctors worry the holiday could be a superspreader event.
With coronavirus cases surging and more than 250,000 dead, the CDC is recommending people not travel for Thanksgiving. And doctors worry the holiday could be a superspreader event.

Thanksgiving in my childhood home is more of a sport than a meal. Why have one pie when you can have seven? Why have a turkey when you can stuff a chicken inside a duck, and the duck inside a turkey? Why have one family over when you can invite the whole neighborhood?

Some relatives prepare for the day like athletes: My cousin’s game plan, for instance, was to eat heavily for the week before, then fast for 24 hours. “That way, your stomach is stretched out before you get really hungry.”

As an internal medicine doctor, I can’t attest to the soundness of his plan, but as a witness I can say no one could match his insatiable enthusiasm.

But this year, Thanksgiving will be in my apartment in Seattle, far from my parents’ Chicago home. My siblings will be scattered across the country with their children. There will

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