Chitrakar: A system that can transform images of human faces into drawings


by Ingrid Fadelli , Tech Xplore

JANUARY 5, 2021 FEATURE

Credit: Singhal et al.

Researchers at the TCS Robotics Research Lab in India have recently developed an artificial intelligence (AI) system that can automatically convert an image of a person's face into a recognizable non-self-intersecting loop, known as a Jordan curve. Subsequently, this Jordan curve can be used to produce realistic drawings of the person in the original image, using a robotic hand.

"The idea for this paper came to me on a flight while reading collection of best mathematical writings, where I came across the article titled "Jordan Curve Theorem Is Non-trivial' by Fiona Ross and William T. Ross," Aniruddha Singhal, one of the researchers who carried out the study, told TechXplore. "I connected it with another book that I had read earlier, titled 'In Pursuit of the Travelling Salesman' by William J. Cook, discussing traveling salesman problem (TSP) art. I realized I could also interpret the article from a Vedantic (Indic or Hindu philosophical) point of view, which connects the idea of TSP art and the Jordan curve, turning it into an expression of the ultimate beauty."

A Jordan curve is essentially a single line that starts and ends in the same point in space, drawing an image without ever intersecting itself. TSP art, on the other hand, is a form of art in which images are produced by drawing a single, non-intersecting line.

After reading about Jordan curves and TSP art, Singhal, who is a roboticist, started investigating the possibility of automatically producing TSP drawings, which are very difficult for humans to create. In collaboration with his colleagues at the TCS Robotics Research Lab, he eventually created Chitrakar, a system that can transform an image into a drawing composed of a single, long line, ultimately turning it into a Jordan curve. In Hindi/Sanskrit, the word Chitrakar means 'painter," or the one who creates a painting.

Credit: Singhal et al.

"Our system uses state-of-the-art, deep-learning techniques to segment the human face from a photo and combined this with image enhancements techniques," Singhal said. "The enhanced image is stippled, and the points are connected by a TSP solver where each point is assumed to be a destination of a traveling salesman. The final route of traveling salesman is converted to a Jordan curve by an intersection removal technique."

Chitrakar, the system created by the researchers, can autonomously convert any image of a human face into a Jordan curve. Subsequently, this Jordan curve is drawn on a piece of paper by a robotic gripper, ultimately creating artistic TSP portraits.


"It is an engineering feat to be able to combine state-of-the-art deep-learning methods, image processing and robotics to enable a robotic arm to draw a portrait in its own unique style," Singhal explained. "It is satisfying to see a robot drawing your face in a unique style."

Credit: Singhal et al.

The robotic gripper designed by Singhal and his colleagues can hold a variety of different pens, which produce slightly different drawings (e.g., with thinner/thicker lines, of a different color, etc.). Remarkably, it can produce drawings with an acceptable result in less than 30 minutes, which is impossible to achieve by human artists. The researchers' system is currently being patented in several different countries and could eventually become widely available.

"We now plan to extend this for other mediums which are difficult for human to handle," Singhal explained. "For instance, we plan to use Style-GAN and other generative models to generate unique portraits from a given picture and then convert them into line or pencil sketches."


Explore furtherJordan detects two coronavirus variant cases: minister

More information: Chitrakar: robotic system for drawing Jordan curve of facial portrait. arXiv:2011.10781 [cs.RO]. arxiv.org/abs/2011.10781

© 2021 Science X Network

Child physical abuse encounters declined during COVID-19

MAYBE THEY DID OR DID NOT, NOT SURE
"Our findings may reflect true decreases in CPA; or, our findings may instead reflect compromised infrastructure for detecting CPA or delayed effects of the pandemic on CPA," the authors write.



JANUARY 5, 2021

(HealthDay)—Declines in child physical abuse (CPA) encounters at U.S. hospitals were seen during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a study published online Dec. 30 in Pediatrics.

Sunitha V. Kaiser, M.D., from the University of California in San Francisco, and colleagues compared the volume and severity of CPA encounters in children's hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic to those of previous years. To examine overall trends, the volume of CPA encounters was compared for Jan. 1 to Aug. 31, 2020, to the same timeframe in 2017 to 2019. The severity of CPA encounters was compared during the pandemic period, defined as March 16 to Aug. 31, 2020, to the same timeframe in 2017 to 2019.

The researchers found that in week 10 of 2020, corresponding to March 16, there was a sharp decline in the all-cause/overall volume of emergency department and inpatient encounters in children's hospitals. There was also a significant decrease in the volume of CPA encounters at week 10 of 2020 (−63.4 cases) compared with previous years. No significant differences in intercepts or slopes of CPA encounter trends were seen when comparing 2020 with previous years. The severity of CPA encounters was similar during the COVID-19 pandemic period and previous years.

"Our findings may reflect true decreases in CPA; or, our findings may instead reflect compromised infrastructure for detecting CPA or delayed effects of the pandemic on CPA," the authors write.


Explore further  Suicide mortality up for Blacks during closure period of COVID-19

More information: Abstract/Full Text (subscription or payment may be required)

Journal information: Pediatrics

Copyright © 2020 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Remote sensing data sheds light on when and how asteroid Ryugu lost its water

by Kevin Stacey, Brown University

JANUARY 5, 2021

Japan's Hayabusa2 spacecraft snapped pictures of the asteroid Ryugu while flying alongside it two years ago. The spacecraft later returned rock samples from the asteroid to Earth. Credit: JAXA

Last month, Japan's Hayabusa2 mission brought home a cache of rocks collected from a near-Earth asteroid called Ryugu. While analysis of those returned samples is just getting underway, researchers are using data from the spacecraft's other instruments to reveal new details about the asteroid's past.


In a study published in Nature Astronomy, researchers offer an explanation for why Ryugu isn't quite as rich in water-bearing minerals as some other asteroids. The study suggests that the ancient parent body from which Ryugu was formed had likely dried out in some kind of heating event before Ryugu came into being, which left Ryugu itself drier than expected.

"One of the things we're trying to understand is the distribution of water in the early solar system, and how that water may have been delivered to Earth," said Ralph Milliken, a planetary scientist at Brown University and study co-author. "Water-bearing asteroids are thought to have played a role in that, so by studying Ryugu up close and returning samples from it, we can better understand the abundance and history of water-bearing minerals on these kinds of asteroids."

One of the reasons Ryugu was chosen as a destination, Milliken says, is that it belongs to a class of asteroids that are dark in color and suspected to have water-bearing minerals and organic compounds. These types of asteroids are believed to be possible parent bodies for dark, water- and carbon-bearing meteorites found on Earth known as carbonaceous chondrites. Those meteorites have been studied in great detail in laboratories around the world for many decades, but it is not possible to determine with certainty which asteroid a given carbonaceous chondrite meteorite may come from.

The Hayabusa2 mission represents the first time a sample from one of these intriguing asteroids has been directly collected and returned to Earth. But observations of Ryugu made by Hayabusa2 as it flew alongside the asteroid suggest it may not to be as water-rich as scientists originally expected. There are several competing ideas for how and when Ryugu may have lost some of its water.

Ryugu is a rubble pile—a loose conglomeration of rock held together by gravity. Scientists think these asteroids likely form from debris left over when larger and more solid asteroids are broken apart by a large impact event. So it's possible the water signature seen on Ryugu today is all that remains of a previously more water-rich parent asteroid that dried out due a heating event of some kind. But it could also be that Ryugu dried out after a catastrophic disruption and re-formation as a rubble pile. It's also possible that Ryugu had a few close spins past the sun in its past, which could have heated it up and dried out its surface.


The Hayabusa2 spacecraft had equipment aboard that could help scientists to determine which scenario was more likely. During its rendezvous with Ryugu in 2019, Hayabusa2 fired a small projectile into the asteroid's surface. The impact created a small crater and exposed rock buried in the subsurface. Using a near-infrared spectrometer, which is capable of detecting water-bearing minerals, the researchers could then compare the water content of surface rock with that of the subsurface.

The data showed the subsurface water signature to be quite similar to that of the outermost surface. That finding is consistent with the idea that Ryugu's parent body had dried out, rather than the scenario in which Ryugu's surface was dried out by the sun.

"You'd expect high-temperature heating from the sun to happen mostly at the surface and not penetrate too far into the subsurface," Milliken said. "But what we see is that the surface and subsurface are pretty similar and both are relatively poor in water, which brings us back to the idea that it was Ryugu's parent body that had been altered."

More work needs to be done, however, to confirm the finding, the researchers say. For example, the size of the particles excavated from the subsurface could influence the interpretation of the spectrometer measurements.

"The excavated material may have had a smaller grain size than what's on the surface," said Takahiro Hiroi, a senior research associate at Brown and study co-author. "That grain size effect could make it appear darker and redder than its coarser counterpart on the surface. It's hard to rule out that grain-size effect with remote sensing."

Luckily, the mission isn't limited to studying samples remotely. Since Hayabusa2 successfully returned samples to Earth in December, scientists are about to get a much closer look at Ryugu. Some of those samples may soon be coming to the NASA Reflectance Experiment Laboratory (RELAB) at Brown, which is operated by Hiroi and Milliken.

Milliken and Hiroi say they're looking forward to seeing if the laboratory analyses corroborate the team's remote sensing results.

"It's the double-edged sword of sample return," Milliken said. "All of those hypotheses we make using remote sensing data will be tested in the lab. It's super-exciting, but perhaps also a little nerve-wracking. One thing is for certain, we're sure to learn a lot more about the links between meteorites and their parent asteroids."


Explore further  Rock types on Ryugu provide clues to the asteroid's turbulent history

More information: K. Kitazato et al, Thermally altered subsurface material of asteroid (162173) Ryugu, Nature Astronomy (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41550-020-01271-2

Journal information: Nature Astronomy

#POLARVORTEX

Imminent sudden stratospheric warming to occur, bringing increased risk of snow over coming weeks

by University of Bristol

The stratospheric potential vorticity field on 10th February 2018. The Stratospheric Polar Vortex is about to split in two, and the weakening of the vortex was followed around two weeks later by a severe cold air outbreak over Europe known as the Beast from the East. Data from ERA-Interim reanalysis (Dee et al., 2011). Credit: University of Bristol

A new study led by researchers at the Universities of Bristol, Exeter, and Bath helps to shed light on the winter weather we may soon have in store following a dramatic meteorological event currently unfolding high above the North Pole.

Weather forecasting models are predicting with increasing confidence that a sudden stratospheric warming (SSW) event will take place today, 5 January 2021.

The stratosphere is the layer of the atmosphere from around 10-50km above the earth's surface. SSW events are some of the most extreme of atmospheric phenomena and can see polar stratospheric temperature increase by up to 50°C over the course of a few days. Such events can bring very cold weather, which often result in snowstorms.

The infamous 2018 'Beast from the East' is a stark reminder of what an SSW can bring. The disturbance in the stratosphere can be transmitted downward and if this continues to the Earth's surface, there can be a shift in the jet stream, leading to unusually cold weather across Europe and Northern Asia. It can take a number of weeks for the signal to reach the surface, or the process may only take a few days.

The study, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research and funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), involved the analysis of 40 observed SSW events which occurred over the last 60 years. Researchers developed a novel method for tracking the signal of an SSW downward from its onset in the stratosphere to the surface.

Findings in the paper, Tracking the stratosphere-to-surface impact of Sudden Stratospheric Warmings suggest split events tend to be associated with colder weather over north west Europe and Siberia.

Lead author of the study, Dr. Richard Hall, said there was an increased chance of extreme cold, and potentially snow, over the next week or two. "While an extreme cold weather event is not a certainty, around two thirds of SSWs have a significant impact on surface weather. What's more, today's SSW is potentially the most dangerous kind, where the polar vortex splits into two smaller 'child' vortices."

"The extreme cold weather that these polar vortex breakdowns bring is a stark reminder of how suddenly our weather can flip. Even with climate change warming our planet, these events will still occur, meaning we must be adaptable to an ever more extreme range of temperatures," said Dann Mitchell, Associate Professor of Atmospheric Science at the University of Bristol and co-author of the study.

"Our study quantifies for the first time the probabilities of when we might expect extreme surface weather following a sudden stratospheric warming (SSW) event. These vary widely, but importantly the impacts appear faster and stronger following events in which the stratospheric polar vortex splits in two, as is predicted in the currently unfolding event. Despite this advance many questions remain as to the mechanisms causing these dramatic events, and how they can influence the surface, and so this is an exciting and important area for future research," said Dr. William Seviour, senior lecturer at the Department of Mathematics and Global Systems Institute, University of Exeter, and co-author of the study.


Explore further

Scientists identify weather event behind extreme cold in Europe and Asia during February 2018
More information: Richard J. Hall et al, Tracking the stratosphere‐to‐surface impact of Sudden Stratospheric Warmings, Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres (2020).

DOI: 10.1029/2020JD033881

Journal information: 

Journal of Geophysical Research - Atmospheres , Journal of Geophysical Research


Provided by University of Bristol

Climate change caused mangrove collapse in Oman

by University of Bonn

JANUARY 5, 2021

6,000 years ago, mangroves were widespread in Oman. Today, only one particularly robust mangrove species remains there, and this is found in just a few locations. Credit: Valeska Decker/University of Bonn

Most of the mangrove forests on the coasts of Oman disappeared about 6,000 years ago. Until now, the reason for this was not entirely clear. A current study of the University of Bonn (Germany) now sheds light on this: It indicates that the collapse of coastal ecosystems was caused by climatic changes. In contrast, falling sea level or overuse by humans are not likely to be the reasons. The speed of the mangrove extinction was dramatic: Many of the stocks were irreversibly lost within a few decades. The results are published in the journal Quaternary Research.

Mangroves are trees that occupy a very special ecological niche: They grow in the so-called tidal range, meaning coastal areas that are under water at high tide and dry at low tide. Mangroves like a warm climate; most species do not tolerate sea surface temperatures below 24 °C (75°F). They are tolerant to salt, but only up to a tolerance limit that varies from species to species. "This is why we find them nowadays mostly in regions where enough rain falls to reduce salinization of the soil," explains Valeska Decker of the Institute for Geosciences at the University of Bonn, the lead author of the study.

Fossil finds prove that there used to be many mangrove lagoons on the coast of Oman. However, some 6,000 years ago these suddenly largely vanished—the reasons for this were previously disputed. Over the past few years, Decker traveled several times to the easternmost country of the Arabian Peninsula to pursue this question for her doctoral thesis. With the support of her doctoral supervisor Prof. Gösta Hoffmann, she compiled numerous geochemical, sedimentological and archaeological findings into an overall picture. "From our point of view, everything suggests that the collapse of these ecosystems has climatic reasons," she says.

Large parts of Oman are very dry today. The annual rainfall was probably much higher about 8,000 years ago. Credit: Valeska Decker/University of Bonn

Low pressure trough shifted to the south

Along the equator there is a low pressure trough, the Intertropical Convergence Zone, which is situated a little further north or south depending on the season. The Indian summer monsoon, for example, is linked to this zone. It is believed that about 10,000 years ago this zone was much further north than today, which meant the monsoon affected large parts of the Arabian Peninsula. Just over 6,000 years ago this low-pressure trough then shifted to the south, but the reason for this and how fast is still not completely clear.

"That this was the case has been well documented for several years," explains Decker. "Our results now indicate that this climate change had two effects: On the one hand, it caused salinization of the soil, which put the mangroves under extreme stress. On the other hand, the vegetation cover in the affected areas decreased in general due to the greater drought." This increased erosion: The wind carried large amounts of the barren soil into the lagoons. These silted up and successively dried up. The whole thing happened surprisingly fast: "The ecosystems probably disappeared within a few decades," stresses Decker. According to previous studies, the environmental changes were gradual. The mangrove ecosystems struggled till a certain threshold was reached and then collapsed within decades. Nowadays, the only mangroves in Oman are those of a particularly robust species and are found only in a few places.

Valeska Decker and her colleagues investigated a number of sediment profiles for the study. These make it possible, for example, to draw conclusions about sea-level changes. Credit: Valeska Decker/University of Bonn

She was able to exclude other possible causes for the disappearance of the mangroves in her study. For example, the researchers found no evidence of a drop in sea level 6,000 years ago that could have triggered the mangrove extinction. "Archaeological findings also speak against a man-made ecological catastrophe," she says. "It is true that there were humans living in the coastal regions who used the mangroves as firewood. However, they were nomads who did not build permanent settlements. This meant that their need for wood was relatively low—low enough to rule out overuse as a cause."


Decker and her colleagues now want to further investigate how much the annual precipitation changed and what impact this had on the region. To this end, the researchers plan to study the pollen that has persisted in the lagoon sediment for thousands of years. They want to find out how the vegetation changed as a result of the drought. The results could also be relevant for us: In many regions of the world, the climate is changing at a dramatic pace. Germany has also suffered increasingly from long droughts in recent years. Foresters are therefore already planning to plant more drought-resistant species in this country; this is a consequence of climate change that may leave long-term marks in the history of vegetation.


Explore further New research identifies 'triple trouble' for mangrove coasts

More information: Valeska Decker et al, Collapse of Holocene mangrove ecosystems along the coastline of Oman, Quaternary Research (2020). DOI: 10.1017/qua.2020.96

Provided by University of Bonn

Identifying Canada's key conservation hot spots highlights problem

by McGill University

JANUARY 5, 2021

Bighorn Country, Alberta Eastern Slopes. Credit: Aerin Jacob

To stop biodiversity loss, Canada recently committed to protecting 30% of its land and sea by 2030. But making conservation decisions about where to locate new protected areas is complicated. It depends on data both about biodiversity and about a range of benefits (e.g. freshwater, climate regulation, recreation) that people get from nature. Surprisingly, despite the size of the country, new mapping suggests that less than 1% of Canada's land (0.6% of total area or approximately 56,000 km2) is a hot spot, providing all these benefits in one place. Moreover, the study published today in Environmental Research Letters suggests that some of the most critical areas where people receive these key benefits from nature do not occur within currently protected areas and may be threatened by current or future natural resource extraction.


"This research is especially timely as it should help all levels of government design conservation plans that ensure that both people and nature thrive," says Elena Bennett, from McGill University's Bieler School of the Environment and one of the authors in a multi-institutional team that included researchers from Universities of British Columbia, McGill and Carleton and from the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative (Y2Y).

Identifying key areas of Canada that provide ecosystem services

The paper highlights multiple places across Canada as important for one or more ecosystem services that include providing freshwater (such as for irrigation, drinking or hydroelectricity), climate regulation (as in the case of forests and wetlands that act as carbon sinks), or for nature-based human recreation. These include the forests of British Columbia and the Hudson Bay lowlands for above- and below-ground carbon; north-central Quebec, the eastern mountains of British Columbia, the eastern slopes of the Rockies in Alberta, and the north shore of Lake Superior for freshwater; and the Rocky Mountains, eastern Ontario, and southern Quebec for nature-based recreation.

"Canada is grappling with where and how to protect nature. Just one example of how this research could be used is in western Alberta. Our research shows that the Eastern Slopes of the Rockies is one of the most important places across the whole country for its combination of freshwater, carbon storage, and recreation—not to mention important wildlife habitat—and yet the same area is at risk from open-pit coal mining and other threats," says Dr. Aerin Jacob, co-author and conservation scientist, at the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative.

Bighorn Country, Alberta Eastern Slopes. Credit:Aerin Jacob

A question of both supply and demand

Crucially and unusually, the mapping methods included both nature's capacity to supply these benefits as well as the human access and demand for them.

north shore of Lake Superior. Credit: Elizabeth Gow.

"Most research that studies the benefits people get from nature only evaluates where nature has the potential to supply these benefits. For example, where rain falls. Because our work also models and maps human access and demand, we could identify where people actually receive these benefits from nature. For example, the key locations producing water that people use for drinking, farming, or hydroelectricity," says Dr. Matthew Mitchell, lead author and Research Associate, Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability, University of British Columbia. "Governments need to know both of these things in order to take action that protects human well-being. Research like this can help society do that."


Explore further Better conservation planning can improve human life too

More information: Matthew G E Mitchell et al, Identifying key ecosystem service providing areas to inform national-scale conservation planning, Environmental Research Letters (2020). 

DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/abc121

Journal information: Environmental Research Letters


Provided by McGill University

Los Angeles County ambulance crews are told not to transport Covid-19 patients with little chance of survival

TRUMPVIRUS CREATES NEED FOR DEATH PANELS

Imagine having cardiac arrest and getting picked up by an ambulance that won't take you to a hospital.

© Apu Gomes/AFP/Getty Images After administering him with oxygen, County of Los Angeles paramedics load a potential Covid-19 patient in the ambulance before transporting him to a hospital in Hawthorne, California on December 29, 2020. - The new variant of coronavirus was detected for the first time today in the United States and Latin America as President-elect Joe Biden vowed to significantly ramp up the vaccination drive. The coronavirus has killed at least 1,775,272 people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to an AFP tally on December 29 based on official sources. The United States is the worst-affected country with 334,967 deaths, followed by Brazil with 191,570. (Photo by Apu GOMES / AFP) (Photo by APU GOMES/AFP via Getty Images)

Or having a medical emergency and languishing outside an emergency room for hours.

This is what Los Angeles County faces as the onslaught of Covid-19 devastates the community -- including those without coronavirus.

"Hospitals are declaring internal disasters and having to open church gyms to serve as hospital units," County Supervisor Hilda Solis said. "Our health care workers are physically and mentally exhausted and sick." Solis called the situation a "human disaster."

More than 7,600 people are hospitalized with Covid-19 in just Los Angeles County. And 21% of them are in intensive care units, officials said Monday.

And every 15 minutes, one person dies from Covid-19, Los Angeles County Director of Public Health Barbara Ferrer said.

Now, ambulance crews in LA County have been told not to take patients with little chance of survival to hospitals.

"This order that was issued by the county emergency medical services really is very specific to patients who suffered from a cardiac arrest and are unable to be revived in the field," said Dr. Jeffrey Smith, chief operating officer of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

"Those patients have a very low rate of survival each if they are transported to the hospital. So at this time, it is deemed to likely be futile."

Who gets taken to a hospital, and who doesn't

The Los Angeles County Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Agency issued a memo last week to ambulance workers.

"Effective immediately, due to the severe impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on EMS and 9-1-1 Receiving Hospitals, adult patients (18 years of age or older) in blunt traumatic and nontraumatic out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) shall not be transported [if] return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) is not achieved in the field," the agency said.

If the patient has no signs of breathing or a pulse, EMS will try to resuscitate the patient for at least 20 minutes, the memo said.

If the patient is stabilized during that time, they would then be taken to a hospital.

But if the patient is declared dead at the scene or no pulse can be restored, paramedics will not take the patient to the hospital.

Patients may or may not get oxygen help

Video: California doctor explains LA County ambulance guidance (CNN)

The Covid-19 surge has also led to a shortage of supplemental oxygen, meaning some patients treated by EMS will go without.

"Given the acute need to conserve oxygen, effective immediately, EMS should only administer supplemental oxygen to patients with oxygen saturation below 90%," Los Angeles County EMS said in its memo.

EMS said an oxygen saturation of at least 90% is sufficient to maintain normal circulation of blood to organs and tissues.

The oxygen shortage in the county and San Joaquin Valley prompted the formation of a "task force on oxygen" last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom said.

The task force has been working with local and state partners to try to refill oxygen tanks and get them to the hospitals and facilities most in need.


Holiday gatherings and essential work fuel spread

As the nation's most populous state and home to about 1 in 9 Americans, it would make sense that California would have the most Covid-19 cases.

But it's the magnitude of hospitalized patients and the staggering rate of increase that are causing major problems.

As of Tuesday, more than 22,000 Covid-19 patients were hospitalized statewide, according to the California Department of Public Health. More than 27,000 people have died from Covid-19, including 368 new deaths reported just Tuesday.

"The increases in cases are likely to continue for weeks to come as a result of holiday and New Year's Eve parties and returning travelers," Ferrer said.

"We're likely to experience the worst conditions in January that we've faced the entire pandemic. And that's hard to imagine."

Experts say other reasons also contribute -- including pandemic fatigue, resistance to stay-at-home regulations, the huge number of essential workers and socioeconomic factors affecting poorer and minority households.


Ambulances wait for hours outside hospitals

Even when patients are lucky enough to get to a hospital, they might languish outside for hours if there's no more room.

"The Emergency Medical Services are working very hard to divert ambulances or send them to hospitals that do have potential capacity to receive those patients," said Smith, COO of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

"There are situations where patients are made to wait in ambulances under the care of the paramedics. We want to make sure that time is as short as possible so they can receive the necessary care."

For EMT Jimmy Webb, the wait can last several hours.

"We are waiting two to four hours minimum to a hospital, and now we are having to drive even further ... then wait another three hours," Webb told CNN affiliate KCAL.

Local officials have urged the public not to call 911 unless "they really need to," Dr. Marc Eckstein, head of the Los Angeles Fire Department EMS bureau, told CNN affiliate KABC.

"One of our biggest challenges right now is getting our ambulances out of the emergency department," he said.

"When our paramedics and EMTs transport a patient to an emergency department, there's a transfer of care that has to take place. Patients who are unstable or unable to be safely transferred to the waiting room or to a chair need a bed in the emergency department to be transferred to. And those beds are lacking right now."

And more ambulances waiting at hospitals means there are fewer ambulances to respond to other 911 calls -- leading to even more delays.

The situation may get worse, Eckstein said.

"I think this next four- to six-week period is going to be critical with our system being taxed," he said.

CANADA 

‘Stupidity’: Experts slam politicians’ travel amid coronavirus pandemic

© Provided by Global News A traveler approaches the AirTrain to JKF International Airport Friday, Nov. 20, 2020, in New York. Rising U.S. coronavirus cases, a new round of state lockdowns and public health guidance discouraging trips are dampening…


The decision made by several federal and provincial politicians to leave the country despite guidance from officials to avoid all non-essential travel amid the novel coronavirus pandemic is selfish and hypocritical, health experts say.

Play Video Federal politicians face fallout for pandemic trips




The move is "tone-deaf politically," Colin Furness, an infection control epidemiologist and assistant professor at the University of Toronto, said.

"I mean, to not be able to read the country, to not be able to read the mood and think somehow this was OK," he said. "The stupidity is surprising."

Dr. Gerald Evans, chair of infectious diseases division at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., told Global News that this is "absolutely the wrong messaging" coming from these public figures.

"What it does is it makes people not want to listen to politicians," he said. "Why would you listen to somebody who's a hypocrite?"

Evans said this raises the question of fairness.

"And that's not the message we want," he said. "I go back to the spring, (when) it was all about, 'We're all in this together,' and it just doesn't look like we're all in this together when politicians travel."

Read more: The Canadian politicians who travelled over the holidays during a coronavirus pandemic

Their remarks come after more than 20 politicians, including (now former) Ontario finance minister Rod Phillips, MP Kamal Khera, and Sen. Don Plett, disclosed they had travelled outside of the country in the last several weeks.

But their decision to ignore the regulations is just a "microcosm of what's going on" in Canada more broadly, Furness said.

"The airplanes that are going back and forth carrying COVID around are not just full of politicians, they are full of lots of people who think it's really important to take a vacation," he said. "And I think there's a bigger social trend. They really are revealing that."

'Outrage'

Furness said this behaviour has provoked "outrage" from those who are heeding the advice of health experts and are respecting the measures in place to stem the spread of the virus.

Play "The challenges Jason Kenney faces after MLAs travelled over the holidays"

This backlash, he said, is "actually very useful."

"Now we actually really have public sentiment that says this is lousy behaviour... This is truly selfish, lousy behaviour," he said.

But Furness said we need to shame the actions, "not the individual," adding that it is important to establish what is good and bad behaviour.

"I want it to look like it's so socially unacceptable that you won't do it," he said. "That kind of attitude is actually starting to form because of these politicians' gaffes, so that's the upside."

Closing down travel

Late last month, the federal government announced new rules for air travellers, saying anyone travelling to Canada will need to obtain a negative COVID-19 test 72 hours before their flight.

The new measures are scheduled to come into effect on Jan. 7.

Under existing rules, anyone entering the country must quarantine for 14 days.

Read more: Canada’s ‘slow’ rollout of coronavirus vaccine ’embarrassing,’ experts say

However, Furness said it's not enough to simply ask Canadians to only travel when it is essential.

"If we want people not to travel, we need to close travel down," he said.

Furness pointed to the new COVID-19 variants identified initially in the United Kingdom and South Africa, which are spreading rapidly.

Early data suggests the U.K. variant is more transmissible than the original variant of COVID-19, while the South Africa variant has raised concerns that mutations could affect vaccine efficacy.

"The U.K. one is definitely in the country, and it's showing up again and again, and it's going to spread and it's going to close schools," Furness said. "That's what's going to happen. This isn't OK, this is not OK."

Growing list of politicians who ignored travel guidelines

The latest figures released last week by the Canadian Border Services Agency said between Dec. 21 and 27, 2020, a total of 132,094 people crossed the country's land border, while 65,318 people arrived by air.

Of those travelling by air, 18,981 arrived on flights from the U.S., while 46,337 came from "other international flights."

By the numbers

To date, Canada has seen a total of 614,072 novel coronavirus infections.

Since the pandemic began, 16,125 people have died in the country after testing positive for COVID-19.

Read more: Over 600K Canadians have now been infected with COVID-19

Globally, more than 85.8 million cases of the virus have been reported, according to a tally from Johns Hopkins University.

By 11 a.m. ET on Tuesday, the virus had claimed 1.8 million lives around the world.

— With files from Global News' Rachael D'Amore and The Canadian Press

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the rules will be changed to forbid people who have to self-isolate after returning from trips abroad from seeking a federal benefit meant for people who need to quarantine after possible COVID-19 exposures. And he says he's disappointed in politicians who travelled over the December holidays...

.More from The Gazette

More federal MPs in Ottawa have come under the spotlight, after they were revealed to have travelled outside Canada against public health advice during the pandemic. David Akin breaks down how the public scrutiny is affecting the parties, and how they are taking further action

Federal politicians face fallout for pandemic trips (msn.com)

Allard resigns as Alberta municipal affairs minister, Kenney's chief of staff steps down amid controversy over international travel

Ashley Joannou 

© Provided by Edmonton Journal Tracy Allard attends the All Candidates Forum at Grande Prairie Regional College on Tuesday, April 9, 2019. Allard resigned from cabinet Monday after travelling to Hawaii over the Christmas holidays, ignoring provincial and federal advisories against non-essential international travel.


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Tracy Allard has resigned as Alberta’s municipal affairs minister after travelling to Hawaii over Christmas despite advisories to avoid all non-essential international travel during the pandemic.

In a statement posted on Facebook Monday, Premier Jason Kenney announced Allard had stepped down and said he had also accepted the resignations of MLA Jeremy Nixon as parliamentary secretary for civil society and MLA Jason Stephan from treasury board. They, as well as MLAs Tanya Fir, Pat Rehn, and Tany Yao, have lost their legislature committee responsibilities.

All six of them, including Allard, remain in the UCP caucus.

The MLAs have been caught up in scandal over the last few days after travelling to various international locations over the holidays despite the government asking Albertans to stay home.

Kenney’s chief of staff, Jamie Huckabay, also travelled to the United Kingdom and returned to Canada via the United States. Kenney said Huckabay has stepped down after the premier asked him to.

At a press conference on New Year’s Day, Kenney said he would not be punishing those who chose to travel, claiming he had not been clear enough with them about the rules.

At the time he was argued that travel, which is not legally forbidden, was important to protect the travel industry, including Calgary-based Westjet.

In his statement Monday, he said Albertans wanted more to be done.

“Albertans have every right to expect that people in positions of public trust be held to a higher standard of conduct during the COVID-19 pandemic, ” he said.

“Millions of Albertans have made real sacrifices over the past 10 months to help keep each other safe. They are right to be angry about people in positions of leadership vacationing outside of the country.”

Transportation Minister Ric McIver will serve as interim municipal affairs minister, and principal secretary Larry Kaumeyer will serve as interim chief of staff, Kenney said.

Allard apologized for her behavior at a press conference on New Year’s Day.

Stephan, the MLA for Red Deer-South, defended taking a trip to Arizona last Thursday. He posted on Facebook Saturday that he was coming home at Kenney’s request but claimed “international travel, in and of itself, does not negatively impact Alberta’s COVID curve if it is done responsibly.”

Nixon, MLA for Calgary-Klein, also travelled to Hawaii in December while Fir, a former cabinet minister, went to Las Vegas. Fir “sincerely” and “wholeheartedly” apologized in a post to Facebook.

Both Rehn and Yao travelled to Mexico. Rehn has apologized for what he called a previously-planned family trip. As of Sunday, government officials confirmed Yao was in Mexico and said they were trying to contact him to tell him to come home.

The NDP Opposition called for Allard to resign when her travel was uncovered last Thursday. In a statement Monday, deputy leader Sarah Hoffman said the government needs to provide a complete accounting of all UCP ministers and MLAs who vacationed outside of Canada over the holidays.

“Premier Jason Kenney’s ministers, MLAs, and senior staff betrayed every single Albertan by thumbing their noses to the rules, by hitting the beach and jetting off to warm destinations while families made deep sacrifices and struggled with loneliness and grief in isolation. It’s sickening,” she said.

Duane Bratt, a political science professor at Mount Royal University, said Kenney’s decision to act now instead of on Friday, when he originally said he wasn’t going to punish travelling MLAs, made the situation worse.

“Basically, had he taken the action that he did today on Friday in that press conference, I don’t think we would have seen the anger build up,” he said.

“It would have been anger from the usual suspects, but it wouldn’t have been the anger from … his own base, and that is what that is what led to the shift.”

Meanwhile, Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson expressed concern that the decision by some politicians to travel will lead others to flout the rules.

In a statement Monday, Iveson said he, like most Edmontonians, stayed home over the holidays.

“Many Edmontonians are justifiably angered about reports that some politicians and public officials, engaged in non essential travel during the serious phase of the pandemic,” Iveson wrote on Twitter.

“As mayor of the hardest hit city in our province. I’m concerned that some will take these developments as an excuse to flaunt the public health rules, even just out of frustration.”

Iveson also issued a statement on the appointment of McIver to lead municipal affairs, noting the relationship between the province and municipalities has never been more important than during the pandemic.

“I want to assure Edmontonians that a change in minister does not mean we will slow down our efforts to ensure our city has the tools it needs to weather this pandemic and recover from it successfully,” he said Monday afternoon.

— With files from Lisa Johnson

Edmonton mayor urges residents to follow COVID-19 rules despite vacation outrage

Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson is urging residents to keep following COVID-19 rules, despite growing outrage over some provincial politicians and staff ignoring advice not to travel.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Several Alberta legislature members, including Municipal Affairs Minister Tracy Allard, have admitted they travelled out of the country over the holidays. Allard resigned Monday and others have been stripped of responsibilities.

Iveson said Monday that many Edmontonians are justifiably angry about the non-essential travel.

But he said it's not an excuse to flout the public-health rules — even out of frustration.

Iveson noted that Edmonton is the hardest hit city in the province and COVID-19 is still a "clear and present danger," lives are at risk and the health-care system is under enormous pressure.

He urged all Edmontonians to continue taking the pandemic seriously to limit the spread of COVID-19.

"I, like most of you, stayed home this holiday season," he wrote in a Twitter post. "I did not gather with family and friends and followed … public health directives.

"I commend Edmontonians who did the same — your sacrifices and diligence have made a difference to case counts. Thank you for your leadership and civic-mindedness."

The latest case data released by the province Monday shows Edmonton has had 45,312 COVID-19 cases. Of those, 5,983 infections were active and 488 people were in hospital. A total of 607 people in the Edmonton region have died due to COVID-19.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 4, 2021.

The Canadian Press

UCP KILLS HEALTHCARE WORKER 
Alberta has lost its first health-care worker to COVID-19, and recorded 96 fatalities over the past five days

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© Provided by Edmonton Journal Alberta Health Minister Tyler Shandro.

Health Minister Tyler Shandro announced the death in an email statement Monday afternoon, saying he was deeply saddened to learn of it.

“Health-care workers are doing all they can to protect the people they care for, their co-workers, and themselves,” said Shandro. “The dedication and remarkable commitment I’ve witnessed from health-care workers throughout the pandemic has never wavered — you have stepped up for this province in a time of need.”

The Alberta Union of Provincial Employees identified the worker as 61-year-old Joe Marie (Jing) Corral. Corral was a health care aide at the Bethany Riverview continuing care facility in Calgary.

“It’s always hard to lose a loved one, but it seems even harder over the holidays when we are so focused on family and friends. AUPE is a community of colleagues and we all send our condolences to the family, said AUPE vice-president Bobby-Joe Borodey.

Mike Parker, president of the Health Sciences Associations of Alberta, said news of Corral’s death was a blow to his membership.

“Our folks are heading into work every single day and this heartbreaking news that’s coming out now, at a time when we don’t have the vaccines being rolled out when our members are not getting the protections that they need from from the rollout of the vaccines, it is really, really tough to hear,” said Parker.

Alberta Health Services spokesman Kerry Williamson said the worker was not an AHS employee but their hearts go out to their loved ones and colleagues.

“Losing a fellow health-care worker impacts us all — this person is a colleague, and we think of them as part of our healthcare family,” said Williamson in an email. “Health-care workers across the province have been working tirelessly to take care of Albertans, and we are so grateful for their commitment and their dedication.”

Data provided online by the government shows 6,426 cases of COVID-19 in health-care workers have been reported since the pandemic began.

Following Shandro’s statement, Alberta Health spokesman Tom McMillan announced 96 people have died with COVID-19 over the past five days, including 54 in the Edmonton Zone. The latest online update is the first since Dec. 30.

A total of 1,142 Albertans have died from COVID-19 since March.

© Provided by Edmonton Journal

On Dec. 30, 1,226 new cases were identified across Alberta while 1,361, 933, 459 and 1,128 cases were recorded on Dec. 31, Jan. 1, Jan. 2 and Jan. 3, respectively. Fewer tests were completed on Jan. 1 and Jan. 2 than on the other three days.

Returning from the new year break, active cases and hospitalizations have dropped since the end of December but so did the number of completed tests. There are currently 13,839 active infections in Alberta, down from 14,555 on Dec. 29.

The number of Albertans getting treatment in hospital has also dropped as there are 905 COVID-19 patients across the province, including 136 in intensive care. On Dec. 29 there were 921 people in hospital, including 152 in intensive care.

Data shows the provincial R value, or the rate at which the virus is spreading, was 0.99 between Dec. 28 and Jan. 3. The Edmonton Zone’s R value was 0.93 during that time frame.

An R value of one typically means that an infected individual will infect one other person. Premier Jason Kenney has previously stated he wants to see the provincial value drop below one, ideally to 0.8.

© Provided by Edmonton Journal