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As states grapple with how to safely start the upcoming school year, the American Academy of Pediatrics is pushing for students to be physically present in classrooms rather than continue in remote learning for the sake of their well-being. The group, which represents and guides pediatricians across the country, updated its back-to-school recommendations to say evidence shows the academic, mental and physical benefits of in-person learning outweigh the risks from the coronavirus. (Lee, 6/30)

On the other hand, the AAP argues that based on the nation's experience this spring, remote learning is likely to result in severe learning loss and increased social isolation. Social isolation, in turn, can breed serious social, emotional and health issues: "child and adolescent physical or sexual abuse, substance use, depression, and suicidal ideation." Furthermore, these impacts will be visited more severely on Black and brown children, as well as low-income children and those with learning disabilities. (Kamenetz, 6/29)

A 71-year-old man who died last week while serving time on San Quentin’s Death Row tested positive for the coronavirus, marking the first known death of a coronavirus patient inside California’s oldest state prison. Richard Stitely’s test results, announced by Marin County officials late Monday morning, come as a monstrous outbreak continues to overwhelm San Quentin State Prison, now infecting more than 1,000 incarcerated people and 89 employees at the facility. As of Monday evening, more than one out of every four people incarcerated at San Quentin were infected. (Cassidy and Fagone, 6/29)

The prison now has almost 40 percent of all confirmed coronavirus cases in the California prison system, which has a total of 2,573 confirmed cases. (Coleman, 6/29)

When the first coronavirus cases in Chicago appeared in January, they bore the same genetic signatures as a germ that emerged in China weeks before. But as Egon Ozer, an infectious-disease specialist at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, examined the genetic structure of virus samples from local patients, he noticed something different. (Kaplan and Achenbach, 6/29)

Hospitals in Arizona are seeing an intense wave of new coronavirus cases, doctors at the Banner University Medical Center in Phoenix told ABC News on Monday, and it is filling up their intensive care units and pushing their nurses to the brink. Dr. Jennifer O'Hea, a Banner ICU doctor overseeing 100 patients, said the situation "exploded" towards the end of May and has snowballed into a dire situation. (Abdelmalek, Rubin, Hartung and Zepeda, 6/30)

A handful of front-line health care workers who have been away from home helping patients fight the coronavirus have once again hugged their children after spending months apart. ... Mary Ann Dakkak, a doctor at Boston Medical Center who has been on the front lines, recently saw her children Eli and Isabelle Tauches, who are 8 and 10 years old respectively, for the first time in more than 90 days. (Schwartz, 6/29)

Kaiser Health News: Essential Worker Shoulders $1,840 Pandemic Debt Due To COVID Cost Loophole 

Carmen Quintero works an early shift as a supervisor at a 3M distribution warehouse that ships N95 masks to a nation under siege from the coronavirus. On March 23, she had developed a severe cough, and her voice, usually quick and enthusiastic, was barely a whisper. A human resources staff member told Quintero she needed to go home. (Varney, 6/30)

Kaiser Health News: Lost On The Frontline | Kaiser Health News

America’s health care workers are dying. In some states, medical personnel account for as many as 20% of known coronavirus cases. They tend to patients in hospitals, treating them, serving them food and cleaning their rooms. Others at risk work in nursing homes or are employed as home health aides.“Lost on the Frontline,” a collaboration between KHN and The Guardian, has identified 729 such workers who likely died of COVID-19 after helping patients during the pandemic. (6/30)

The hospital’s first employee to die of Covid-19 was a kitchen worker named Marie Deus. She was 65, and a longtime germophobe. Years before the pandemic, years before the new coronavirus was known to exist, she always kept a stash of masks and Purell in her bag. She was never without paper towels, to shield her hands from whatever unseen dangers lurked on doorknobs, on handholds in the bus. (Boodman, 6/30)

Across New York, workers in patient services at hospitals have had to figure out what to do with the thousands of cellphones, chargers, walkers, canes, hearing aids, dentures, glasses, clothing, shoes, wallets, Bibles, jewelry, among other items, that have been left behind by patients who have died after contracting Covid-19. (Salcedo, 6/29)

The state Department of Health granted New York City hospitals permission to resume nonurgent surgeries June 8—Long Island and Westchester facilities got the green light in late May—but the busiest facilities have thousands of procedures to schedule. Perullo is working with her doctor to find a date for surgery. (LaMantia, 6/29)

Flying can increase your risk of exposure to infection, but airlines are taking some precautions and you can too. Air travel means spending time in security lines and airport terminals, which puts you into close contact with other people. As travel slowly recovers, planes are becoming more crowded, which means you will likely sit close to other people, often for hours, which raises your risk. (6/30)

When Brittany Brockenbrough’s transgender son lost his in-school counseling and the ability to have meet-ups with other L.G.B.T.Q. youth during the pandemic, his mental health suffered. “He began to feel depressed and was withdrawn,” said Ms. Brockenbrough, a mother of two in Virginia. She was later able to get her son teletherapy and in-home support from a local mental health agency and to find ways for him to stay in touch with others in his community through such activities as weekly Zoom meetings and online game nights. (Valencia, 6/29)

Kaiser Health News: ‘More Than Physical Health’: Gym Helps 91-Year-Old Battle Isolation

Most mornings, like clockwork, you could find Art Ballard pumping iron. At least five days a week, he drove to Foothill Gym, where he beat on the punching bag, rode a stationary bike and worked his abs. After he joined the gym five years ago, he dropped 20 pounds, improved his balance and made friends. (de Marco, 6/30)

Alameda County health officer Dr. Erica Pan, a key figure in the county’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, is leaving that position for a role with the state’s health department. Pan has been appointed California State Epidemiologist and deputy director for the Center for Infectious Diseases at the California Department of Public Health, according to a release from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office Monday. (Kawahara, 6/29)

Bay Area tenants groups and a prominent San Francisco tenants law firm say they’ve seen a surge in evictions, or high pressure from landlords meant to squeeze tenants out, as people across California file for unemployment in droves. (Fitzgerald Rodriguez, 6/29)

Throwing a party -- a real, in-person party -- during a pandemic means pondering questions rarely covered in books of etiquette. Which guests should be crossed off the list as too risky or too much at risk? How to deal with huggers who fail to suppress their instincts? Will there be access to a bathroom? And is it appropriate to use a bottle of hand sanitizer as a table centerpiece? (Haddon and Hagerty, 6/29)