TASK DEFINITION: Generate an explanation for the given claim using the provided supporting material from the paragraph. Please consider the following points while generating an output. 1) The claim will always have supporting proof in the paragraph, and the paragraph will have a clear point of view supporting the claim. 2) There can be instances where direct correlation to the claim is not available. Make use of the sentences in the paragraph to provide a corresponding output supporting the claim. 3) The explanation should be at least one and at most twelve sentences long.
PROBLEM: Paragraph: Since Nov. 1, South Carolina has recorded 86 reported cases of the contagious disease. State Epidemiologist Linda Bell said Monday that’s more than four times what state officials normally expect to see. Over the last 10 years, South Carolina averaged 19 reported cases of hepatitis A annually. Most of the new cases have occurred in Aiken County, and almost half of all cases involve individuals who reported drug use, Bell said. Still, the general population needn’t be overly concerned, she said. “But we are seeing cases higher that what we expect to see,” Bell said. “And so it’s important for us to do our prevention efforts early to reach those high-risk groups, get them vaccinated ... so that we can prevent” a severe outbreak. The State reports the Department of Health and Environmental Control is offering no-cost vaccines to high risk groups including drug users, homeless, formerly incarcerated and sexually-active gay men. Additionally, health officials recommend all children get two doses of the vaccine as part of their immunization schedule. Of the 86 reported cases in South Carolina, 59 have led to hospitalization and one resulted in death, the DHEC said. Hepatitis is a disease characterized by inflammation of the liver. It comes in many forms, including hepatitis A, B and C. As a result, individuals with chronic liver disease, like cirrhosis, are at increased risk of complications if infected and should be vaccinated. The virus-borne infection can be prevented by vaccination and is usually transmitted person-to-person through consumption of contaminated food or water, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Antibodies produced in response to hepatitis A infection last for life and protect against reinfection. Infection usually results in sickness in two to six weeks after exposure. Symptoms include fatigue, loss of appetite, stomach pain, nausea, and yellowing of the eyes and skin. Symptoms usually resolve within two months of infection, according to the CDC. State public health officials in February declared an outbreak in Aiken County after an employee at a second restaurant in Aiken tested positive for the virus, the DHEC said. Bell, though, stressed transmission by food or beverage is uncommon. “Most transmission in the United States is through person-to-person contact,” Bell said. “Good hygiene - diligently washing your hands - is a good way to prevent hepatitis A, as well as not sharing personal items,” including drug equipment, she said, adding the state has received reports of hepatitis A from people using various drugs, “everything from marijuana to meth.” Residents can schedule an appointment for a vaccination at their local health department by calling 855-472-3432 or going to http://bit.ly/2HhEsM8 . ___ Information from: The State, http://www.thestate.com Claim: South Carolina declares hepatitis outbreak.

SOLUTION: What began as a spike in reported hepatitis A cases in Aiken County has now spread to other parts of South Carolina, prompting public health officials to declare a statewide outbreak.

PROBLEM: Paragraph: That— and some TLC — usually does the job. At a recent meeting, the Janesville School Board received the annual school nursing report. The report showed that while Band-Aids and ice packs are applied by the hundreds, school nurses are dealing with more serious concerns. Between the 2014-15 school year and the 2018-19 school year, the number of students requiring health plans, daily medication, inhalers and emergency medication has slowly crept up. Nurses, with the help of health aides, hand out daily medication; set up medical kits for field trips; work with doctors, nurses and parents to serve students with medically complex needs; give eye exams; and provide education and support to parents on everything from bed bugs to seizures and toilet training to allergies, The Janesville Gazette reported. That’s the short list. By the numbers In the 2018-19 school year, the Janesville School District had five nurses serving 10,049 students at 21 district schools and 13 private or nonprofit four-year-old kindergartens. That’s a ratio of one nurse to 2,010 students. Student numbers will remain about the same for the 2019-20 school year. “While the Department of Public Instruction does not mandate a specific ratio to school districts, the average ratio of school nurses to pupils in Wisconsin school districts is 1 to 1,625,” district Director of Pupil Services Kimberli Peerenboom wrote in her report to the board. State law does not require schools to have nurses but does say “emergency nursing services shall be available during the regular school day and during all school sponsored activities of students.” Along with the five nurses, the district also uses health aides. Each elementary school has four hours a day the principal can designate as health aide hours, according to Peerenboom’s report. In the upper grades, principals don’t have hours to designate, but they can assign health-aide duties to office staff, the report stated. Some health aides are also secretaries or serve in other paraprofessional roles that involve working with students. Apart from the general cuts and scrapes, 1,715 students had a documented health condition. Asthma, allergies and attention deficit disorder make up the majority of those cases. Other conditions include Crohn’s disease, diabetes, migraines, cerebral palsy, depression, anxiety and autism spectrum disorders. In addition, 227 students take a daily medication at school, that’s up from 183 students in the 2016-17 school year. The number of students who need emergency medication has gone from 134 students in the 2014-15 school year to 231 in the 2018-19 school year. Nurses aren’t in charge of figuring out why those numbers have increased, they just have to deal with the results. In the 2018-19 school year, nurses and health aides reported 161,089 visits from students, according to Peerenboom’s report. A visit counted as anything from needing a Band-Aid to taking daily medication, the report said. With 21 schools, that’s an estimated 43 visits per day. The numbers in action Based on a recent morning spent with school nurse Heidi Bakke, 43 students a day seemed like a reliable count. An hour before the 8:20 a.m. bell at Wilson Elementary, Bakke was updating a health plan. Such plans are for students with chronic conditions who might need monitoring or intervention during the school day. Creating a plan involves a complex back and forth among the school nurse, parents, and physicians and their nurses. It can be a complicated process. ″(The nurses) are probably not going to be in the building when the emergency happens, so we train medical emergency response teams at each school,” Bakke said. The nursing team recently implemented “grab-and-go bags.” The bags contain all the emergency supplies for children with medical needs and a copy of each child’s health plan. Nurses also must prepare a similar kit when a student with a health plan goes on a field trip. And the nurses also have to let teachers know what to look for. “The kiddos who have diabetes — those are the hardest ones to train teachers on because they have frequent blood sugar checks.” Bakke said. “If the kid is out hiking at the Janesville Schools Outdoor Lab, their blood sugar might drop, so you have to have snacks available.” The morning we visited, Bakke was mentoring a new nurse, Holly Cavey. Also in the small office was Cheri Diehls, the school’s part-time health aide. Once Cavey is trained, she will have five schools to cover, while Bakke has six. That’s another change. Nurses used to travel to all schools, now they’re assigned to five or six. “It’s a better model,” Bakke said. “It provides better continuity of care. I want the kids to get to know nurse Heidi.” While the nurses worked on reports, responded to emails and took calls from physicians’ offices and parents, kids needing immediate attention trooped in and out of the office. There were general owies, issues with hearing or sight, a bloody nose, a student needing their daily medication, another needing help with an inhaler, and a half dozen other issues traditionally associated with a trip to the nurse’s office. Cavey and Bakke then headed to Franklin Middle School, where there seemed to be a lunch rush in the nurse’s office. Health aide Angela Basurto-Bonilla was keeping things calm, explaining to students that if their temperature was normal and they weren’t throwing up, it would be best for them to stay in school. The nurse’s office is across from the main office, and sometimes the new students got them mixed up. The proximity works well since sometimes the office secretaries worked as health aides. “Do you feel sick? Well, you’re in the right place,” Basurto-Bonilla told a student. Bakke said the health aides were crucial to the success of the district’s nursing program. Their skills, demeanor and their day-to-day knowledge of students are crucial to the nurse’s work. Despite the number of reports she writes and the amount of training she does, it’s the interaction with students that’s the most important to her. ___ Information from: The Janesville Gazette, http://www.gazetteextra.com Claim: School nurses serve many needs.

SOLUTION: School injuries usually don’t require much care: a Band-Aid for a scraped knee, an ice pack for a bump or bruise, or a tissue for a bloody nose.

PROBLEM: Paragraph: The governor, a Democrat, noted that hospitalizations are in the third week of a downward progression and the state is on pace to “blow through” a projected 42,000 tests per week beginning next week, ramping up to more than 100,000 by June. “I appreciate the ongoing concern that people have, but I think we’ve got the right balance going forward right now,” Lamont said during his daily media briefing. “I think you have a sense that we put public health and public safety first and foremost. Whatever we do, we’re doing very cautiously. ” In one of two letters, lawmakers noted how some parts of the state are still seeing increasing numbers of COVID-19 cases. The latest data show cases climbed by 609 from Wednesday, to nearly 35,500. But that comes as the state is ramping up testing. Meanwhile, the number of deaths spiked by 94 since Wednesday, for a total of 3,219. More than half of those are nursing home residents. “Reopening is essential — but to do it while the first wave of the pandemic is still raging will not lead to a second wave, it will simply add fuel to the first wave, delaying our eventual recovery,” the senators wrote to Lamont. Senate Republican Leader Len Fasano said he supports the first reopening date — Wednesday, May 20 — noting the state has the medical capacity to deal with an uptick in cases of the coronavirus. In the meantime, he said, the state is suffering in other ways because of current restrictions, noting an increase in domestic violence, drug abuse and mental health problems. “Those are all huge health care concerns,” he said. “Huge.” For most people, the virus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough, that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. In other coronavirus-related developments around Connecticut: ___ NURSING HOMES Representatives of nursing home and assisted living facilities in Connecticut said new data released Thursday evening show the coronavirus “still has a hold” on the state’s nursing homes. In a joint statement, the presidents of LeadingAge Connecticut, the Connecticut Association of Health Care Facilities and the CT Assisted Living Association, said the latest numbers also reveal “the pernicious character of the highly contagious virus, now known to be transmitted by asymptomatic carriers” and is “no way a reflection of the quality” of the facilities and the care they provide. The state’s figures show 163 nursing homes and 75 assisted living facilities in the state have had at least one positive case of COVID-19. In nursing homes, there have been 6,947 positive cases, 1,487 laboratory-confirmed COVID-associated deaths and 440 probable COVID-associated deaths. In assisted living facilities, there have been 874 positive cases, 207 laboratory-confirmed COVID-associated deaths and 69 probable COVID-associated deaths. ____ CASINO TOWNS A bipartisan group of eastern Connecticut state lawmakers on Thursday urged Lamont to to personally engage with Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribal leaders to determine how the state can help them reopen Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods Resort Casino as soon as possible and support the roughly 10,000 workers who are currently out of work, as well as the hundreds of impacted local vendors. The lawmakers also called on Lamont to authorize the tribes to operate internet gambling and sports betting, a revenue source they argue is needed to help restart “two economic powerhouses” in the region. “The continued closure of the casinos is untenable,” they wrote, noting how the situation warrants the governor’s personal involvement. Both casinos have been shuttered since March 17. It remains unclear when they might reopen. “I really do care about the people. I care about getting those people back to work safely,” Lamont said. “I do worry a lot about the nature of a big gathering place like a casino. It does bring in people from all over the region, all over the Northeast region ... It can be a place that’s a source of high risk.” Paul Mounds, Lamont’s chief of staff, said the governor and his administration have been in constant contact with the tribes, with more discussions planned Friday. Meanwhile, Lamont said he’s not inclined to authorize internet gambling and sports betting in an executive order, but said he is open to further discussions. Also, he said he plans to ask his economic advisor to see if there’s a way to help target some federal assistance to the businesses impacted by the casino closures. ___ PRISON VIDEO VISITS The state Department of Correction says it has begun allowing 30-minute video calls between juvenile offenders and family members. The “video visits” are being conducted over the Zoom Cloud Meetings application from the York Correctional Institution for women and the Manson Youth Institution. The department says the visits can only be made to people on the offenders approved visitation list. Three authorized adult visitors may participate. Visitors under 18 may only participate if accompanied by a parent or legal guardian. In person visitation has been suspended during the pandemic and previously inmates had been limited to telephone calls with their loved ones. ___ HOSPITAL FLYOVERS The Connecticut Air National Guard conductED a statewide flyover Thursday to salute the state’s health care workers. The guard’s C-130H aircraft flew above hospitals and other health care facilities throughout the state. Numerous people posted photos of the four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft on social media as it flew overhead. Maj. Gen. Francis Evon, the adjutant general of the Connecticut National Guard, said it’s a way to show “appreciation to the thousands of heroes at the front line battling COVID-19.” ____ EDUCATION FUNDING Connecticut is receiving $111 million in federal coronavirus relief aid to help school districts during the global pandemic. The Connecticut State Department of Education is developing an application process for school districts, who can use the money for things like computer and software purchases, mental heath services and summer learning. Claim: Lamont moving ahead with May 20 reopening despite concerns.

SOLUTION:
Despite a call on Thursday by a group of Democratic state senators to delay plans to begin phasing out Connecticut’s COVID-19 restrictions next week, Gov. Ned Lamont said his administration is still moving ahead carefully toward the planned May 20 partial reopening of certain Connecticut businesses.