Coronavirus Watch: The costs of long-hauler health care

The seemingly endless COVID-19 illness gripping Ronald Gaca offers him little hope of ever returning to the workforce, let alone the road construction job that supported his family.

Since his infection in March 2020, the 59-year-old New Yorker’s chronic fatigue and breathing struggles have kept him mostly homebound. Amid the medical saga, Gaca’s household budget stayed afloat through unemployment benefits – about $800 a week.

But the payments recently expired, leaving few options for a manual laborer who now can barely make it up a flight of stairs carrying a laundry basket.

The Paste BN Network interviewed dozens of long-haul COVID-19 sufferers and experts, who talked of the daily economic woes and long-term financial ramifications of a disease that, in many ways, remains a mystery. 

The safety nets set up to provide that support – workers’ compensation and disability – are far from guaranteed. Read more here.

It's Thursday, and this is Coronavirus Watch from the Paste BN Network. Here's more news you need to know.

• Overwhelmed by a surge in COVID-19 patients, Alaska’s largest hospital implemented crisis standards of care, prioritizing resources and treatments to those patients who have the potential to benefit the most. Idaho did the same in the northern part of the state last week.
• Nursing home aides are the most likely staffers to have direct contact with residents but were the least likely workers at the homes to be vaccinated, a new study shows.
• A federal judge in Florida denied a request by parents of disabled children for a preliminary injunction to block Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis's ban on school mask mandates.
• Texas health data showed the number of hospital patients for COVID-19 in the state was declining, despite seeing thousands of new cases every day.

Today's numbers: The U.S. has reported more than 41.6 million COVID-19 cases and 667,000 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Worldwide, there have been more than 226 million cases and more than 4.6 million deaths. About 63% of people in the U.S. have received at least one vaccine shot, and about 54% are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC. Among U.S. adults, 76% have received at least one shot, and about 65% are fully vaccinated.

Tracking the pandemic: See the numbers in your area here. See where cases are rising here. See vaccination rates here. And here, compare vaccinations rates worldwide and see which countries are using which vaccines.

– Grace Hauck, Paste BN breaking news reporter, @grace_hauck