A study published in medRxiv estimated that between 1 percent and 2 percent of New Yorkers infected with COVID-19 — including those with no or mild symptoms — died between March 1 and May 16, reports HealthLeaders Media . This suggests that the fatality risk averaging 1.45 percent during that period is more than double the 0.7 percent risk identified in previous studies from China and France. The researchers considered 191,392 laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases and 20,141 confirmed and probable COVID-19 deaths in New York City during the studied timespan. Mortality risk was highest for older adults, with infection fatality risk of 4.67 percent for 65- to 74-year-olds and 13.83 percent for persons 75 and older. The authors said these estimates likely more accurately reflect the true mortality risk of the coronavirus as they rely on "robust data" collected by health officials in New York City, where specialists review all death certificates and post deaths in a unified electronic reporting system. "These dire estimates highlight the severity of COVID-19 in senior populations and the importance of infection prevention in congregate settings," the authors warned. "Thus, early detection and adherence to infection control guidance in long-term care and adult care communities should be a priority for COVID-19 response as the pandemic continues to unfold."

Costco announced that beginning July 13, the big-box retailer will reduce its operating hours for seniors to two days a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m., reports the Today Show . The shopping hours were previously held Monday through Friday. Although restrictions on meat purchases have been lifted in recent weeks, Costco has imposed a limit on fresh poultry purchases of two items per member. Cutting back hours for senior shopping is one of several policies Costco is revising as states begin allowing various businesses to reopen. Employees and shoppers are still required to wear face coverings, and Costco will continue to provide priority access to healthcare workers and first responders for the foreseeable future. Sitting down at food courts is still disallowed, but many have reopened for limited takeout service.

COVID-19 contact tracing wearables are being issued to Singapore's "most vulnerable seniors," who are not digitally connected and at higher risk of catching the coronavirus, reports ZDNet . The Bluetooth-enabled devices, called TraceTogether Tokens, each have a unique QR code and do not depend on someone owning a smartphone as they lack Internet or cellular connectivity and GPS. The tokens hold encrypted data of close contacts for up to 25 days. TraceTogether Tokens exchange Bluetooth signals with other TraceTogether Tokens, and mobile phones running the TraceTogether app, that are within two meters of each other for more than 30 minutes. The Health Ministry's contact tracing team will extract data from devices handed over to authorized health officials and inform users if they are identified as a close contact of a person with COVID-19.

A study published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience suggests that the older a person is, the less likely he or she is to share memories, or describe them in as much detail as their younger counterparts do, reports Psych Central . University of Arizona (UArizona) researchers explored the issue by electronically "eavesdropping" on 102 cognitively healthy older adults' conversations "in the wild" with a smartphone app, rather than under laboratory conditions. Older individuals shared fewer memories, and were less detailed in describing them the older they were. "There are a number of regions in the brain that seem to play an important role in how often we think about our personal past or future," said UArizona Professor Matthew Grilli. "These brain areas tend to show change with older age, and the idea is that because of these changes, older adults might reflect less on their personal past and future when they're talking with other people." Grilli added that recalling and sharing memories can help older people connect with others, guide planning and decision-making, and help attain meaning in other life events. "One of the reasons we're really interested in better tracking cognitive decline is because we're learning that diseases like Alzheimer's are impacting cognition probably decades before obvious symptoms arise," he said. "The idea that we can develop tools that can track change earlier is intriguing, and it will be important to see if smartphone apps can do that."

A study published in Radiology suggests that the progression of Alzheimer's disease may accelerate as iron deposits accumulate in the brain, according to U.S. News & World Report . Analysis of magnetic resonance imaging scans of 200 older adults with and without Alzheimer's determined that those with Alzheimer's had higher iron levels in various parts of the brain. Moreover, 17 months later, subjects with Alzheimer's who had a greater iron accumulation over time also tended to exhibit faster mental decline. Experts said it remains unclear whether iron buildup helps worsen symptoms, but it adds to a body of evidence connecting such deposition to deteriorating thinking and memory. "Iron levels in the brain are like amyloid and tangles — a pathological feature that is associated with Alzheimer's," said Ashley Bush at Australia's Melbourne Dementia Research Center. He added that both genes and age are determinants of a person's brain iron level, and his research team has discovered that mutations in a gene for amyloid precursor protein appear to boost iron levels. "This study suggests there's some kind of connection between iron accumulation in the brain and cognitive deterioration, but we can't say yet whether the decline causes the iron buildup or the iron buildup causes the decline," noted Keith Fargo with the Alzheimer's Association.

A new Climate Central report said climate change will be especially harmful to baby boomers, and COVID-19 adds to the risk, according to the Nevada Current . Average summer temperatures in Nevada's cities have risen significantly in the past 50 years, while the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that heat-related deaths have more than quadrupled in Nevada from 28 in 2014 to 139 in 2017. Boomers over 60 years old currently account for more than 80 percent of heat-related deaths nationally, and the Census Bureau calculated that the number of retirement-age residents is rapidly growing in Nevada, with nearly one in six 65 or older. Climate Central said U.S. cities were an average 2.4 degrees hotter than the surrounding rural areas during the past 10 summers due to blacktop and pavement, but long-term greenhouse gas emissions and global warming exacerbate rising temperatures. Researchers are worried COVID-19 will elevate the risk to seniors during hotter summers. Social distancing could prevent seniors from using traditional cooling centers or local air-conditioned sites like libraries or shopping centers — or neighborhood casinos in Nevada — as they shun public places and personal contact. "As the summer months roll around, if you are isolated, if you are elderly and it's hot out, and you are concerned about COVID, we're kind of entering the perfect storm for bad things to happen," warned University of Colorado School of Medicine Professor Jay Lemery.

Home Instead Senior Care in Hampton Roads, Va., started a program to ease the loneliness of residents in senior care communities by setting them up with pen pals, reports WAVY-TV . The program features letters that are written and sent digitally to prevent contagion — a critical consideration during the COVID-19 pandemic. Art and video correspondence are accepted as well. Home Instead franchise owner Hollie Bradley said since its launch a few months ago, the program has facilitated more than 200 pen pal connections. Letters are submitted through Home Instead's website and then vetted, after which program coordinators connect pen pals to local seniors with interests in common. "I think it shows how we all need this to feel good," Bradley noted. "I think we've all been dealing with so much hardship with the toughness of the pandemic with everything that's happening right now, so it's nice to have something to make us feel good inside but also to know we're making a difference in other's lives."

The United Kingdom is in dire economic straits, with a looming recession and other challenges adding urgency to the need to address a rapidly aging workforce, reports Bloomberg . "The combination of an aging workforce in some sectors and the potential changes to worker availability and migration rules, essentially is coming together with this huge increase in unemployment," said Learning and Work Institute CEO Stephen Evans. "If we invest now, we can improve them together." For example, truck drivers are about 57 years old on average, yet they transport 98 percent of goods in Britain, according to the Road Haulage Association. A lack of people able or willing to spend a large amount to qualify for a truck-driving license means up to 60 percent of haulers on U.K. roads are from continental Europe. Moreover, COVID-19 has forced the U.K. government to change rules that require heavy-goods vehicle drivers over 65 to undergo an annual medical. Further, economic reliance on still-employed over-65s without a stream of new employees is unwise. Worsening the situation is younger workers' shifting views and skillsets due to successive governments prioritizing higher education over vocational qualifications.

Insurers that were quick to adopt federally mandated expansions to telehealth Medicare coverage instituted because of the COVID-19 pandemic are starting to scale back that coverage, which could seriously affect both doctors and patients, reports USA Today . Texas Digestive Disease Consultants CEO James Weber said some of the expanded telehealth coverage was planned until the end of the "public health emergency," which is poorly defined with no end on the horizon. "It seems like you would want to keep the telehealth channel open, particularly for the vulnerable populations," added Arizona Digestive Health President Paul Berggreen. Our Culture Care founder Joy Cooper started her service to connect black women to black doctors for telehealth appointments, but a national expansion could be waylaid because payments remain a obstacle, and medical practices that lacked telehealth capabilities before COVID will have a difficult transition. Optum Health CEO Wyatt Decker added that there must be a "fair conversation" on appropriate payment rates for telemedicine options. Meanwhile, the American Telemedicine Association said Medicare should pay equal rates for virtual and in-person care. Harvard Medical School Professor Ateev Mehrotra said physicians are concerned that the investment of obtaining telehealth software, and training staff and patients could "go down the tubes" once the pandemic ends and insurance policies return to pre-COVID levels.

A recent Harris Poll found that one-third of Americans, including older Americans, are considering relocating to less populated areas due to the COVID-19 pandemic, reports KYW Newsradio 1060 . However, Widener University Professor Karen May joins other experts in saying that this may actually create more problems, especially for older men and women. "Infrastructure is very different," she noted. "Access to public transit, access to grocery stores and pharmacies, all of that is all spread out. So it requires, first of all, that you have a car. And you have the ability to do that." May also said relocation can be stressful, and adds to the strain of being in the middle of a pandemic. Nora Super of the Milken Institute for the Future of Aging cited loneliness as another burden, and research demonstrates that seniors in nursing and assisted living communities have reported more loneliness during the lockdown because visits were suspended. "You hear several geriatricians and people that work in these nursing homes worry that these residents are actually dying of loneliness," Super said.