Global deaths from COVID-19 have now surpassed 5 million, according to the data released Monday from Johns Hopkins University's coronavirus tracker.

The U.S. continues to lead the world with the number of confirmed deaths from the virus — where more than 745,800 people have died from COVID-19. Brazil (with more than 607,000 deaths) and India (with more than 450,000 deaths) follow the U.S. in the number of lives lost since the start of the pandemic.

More at source: NPR

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PITTSBURGH – An employee of a carpet cleaning service who claimed he was wrongfully terminated during the COVID-19 pandemic, when he objected to working in areas where social distancing and wearing of protective personal equipment was not being practiced, has seen his case dismissed in state court.

Zachary Holtzman of McKeesport first filed suit in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas on March 12 versus Cleaning Services Corporation (doing business as “ServiceMaster Carpet & Upholstery”), of Pitcairn.

According to the complaint, Holtzman was hired as a full-time area manager for the defendant near the end of 2019. During that time, the plaintiff resided with his elderly grandfather, for whom he provided care.

In March 2020, the suit explained that the COVID-19 pandemic took hold across the country, leading to Allegheny County issuing a stay-at-home order. Over the course of the pandemic, the stay-at-home orders were revised and the county began to let people return to work.

“Plaintiff advised defendant that because he cared for his elderly grandfather, who is an at-risk person for severe COVID-19, he could only work in situations where people could and did heed social distancing guidelines and wear appropriate PPE. In June of 2019, defendant sent plaintiff to the Jewish Community Center in the South Hills area of Pittsburgh,” the suit stated.

More at source: Pennsylvania Record

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An Atlanta City Council committee is urging companies to pay airport custodial workers at least $15 an hour.

But the committee vote could prove merely symbolic even if it is approved by the entire council. That’s because Georgia state law preempts locally set minimum wages, specifically prohibiting municipalities from directly or indirectly mandating a minimum wage for private-sector workers or city contractors.

The resolution by the city council transportation committee Wednesday says starting hourly wages for some jobs at janitorial contractors ABM Industries and CSM America are as low as $8.50. More than 700 janitorial and maintenance workers clean 3 million square feet at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, including restrooms, gate areas and other public areas.

Georgia’s minimum wage is $5.15 an hour, but employers are generally subject to the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.

While many city council members and city officials say they support $15 pay for workers, and the City of Atlanta has already raised the minimum wage it pays its own government employees to $15 an hour...

More at source: AJC

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In the United States, more than two million people, mostly women, clean and care for the sick, elderly, and young in the homes of others. Their median pay is $12 an hour, and only one in five domestic workers have employer-provided health care. It’s extremely rare for them to have other benefits like retirement or paid time off, and they are excluded from most labor laws, leaving them more vulnerable to exploitation and abuse. Just over half of all domestic workers are people of color, and 35 percent are immigrants.

Domestic work is “the work that makes work possible.” But the women who perform it are basically invisible, their stories seldom told. They rarely appear in movies and on television even as background characters; the homes on TV are magically, spotlessly clean. Thus, it’s notable that Stephanie Land’s book Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay and a Mother’s Will to Survive was made into a new Netflix miniseries — and a popular one at that, with Maid clocking in at number three on Netflix last week.

More at source: Jacobin

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Recent updates:

• Updated COVID Data Tracker Vaccinations in the US tab now shows booster dose data by jurisdiction, including the count and % of the fully vaccinated population that has received a booster dose
• New How to Use CDC’s COVID Data Tracker video shows users how to use COVID Data Tracker to follow pandemic trends and find key COVID-19 data

More info at CDC

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After deducting those fees, plus taxes and insurance costs, Jan-Pro of New Mexico would cut a monthly check to Maria and Samuel for their cleaning services, which amounted to about $5,600 in net monthly income earned by the couple for their seven assigned customers.

But when the Guidos unexpectedly closed the doors without warning in June 2020, Maria and her husband were left to fend for themselves to keep their cleaning business alive. They scrambled to retain their customers, offering to continue cleaning the clients’ offices independent of the Jan-Pro brand. But overnight, four of their seven customers — which Maria and Samuel had paid $10,000 to the Guidos to obtain — canceled their contracts.

They weren’t the only ones affected. When the Guidos shut down their operation in the midst of the pandemic, it thrust a network of local franchise operators — most of them Spanish-speaking immigrants like Maria and Samuel — into a prolonged crisis that many are still grappling with today.

More At Source: ABQ Journal 

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A Chicago janitorial company headed by clout-heavy businessman Rick Simon is suing City Hall in an effort to hold onto a deal at O’Hare Airport under which it’s been paid almost $200 million over nearly a decade.

Simon’s United Maintenance Company Inc. says Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration is violating city and state procurement and contract bidding procedures.

The suit, filed Oct. 8, says City Hall plans to give half of the work at O’Hare that Simon’s company has been doing to ABM Industries, Inc., one of the nation’s largest janitorial businesses, which has faced a series of lawsuits filed by the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission accusing ABM of failing to protect female workers from sexual violence ..

More at source: Chicago Sun Times

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A new mutated version of the COVID Delta variant spreading in the U.K. could be 10 percent more transmissible than Delta, researchers think.

However, it's too early to say whether this strain could be more evasive to immunity than Delta and it also doesn't appear to be taking over as fast as Delta did from Alpha.

The variant, which has been given the label AY.4.2, appears to have branched off from the Delta AY.4 sub-variant by gaining two mutations known as Y145H and A222V. Both have been seen before in previous COVID variants but at low frequencies.

More at source: Newsweek

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