Reported U.S. coronavirus cases increased to 496,636 in the past 24 hours, an increase of 33,017 or 7 percent. This makes a drop in both the number of cases and the rate of growth as 7 percent is the lowest we’ve seen to date. This lends credence to the models that have predicted that the worst is behind us.
The number of deaths due to COVID-19 exceeded 2,000 in the past 24 hours, a first for the United States. The jump of 2,036 represents an increase of 12 percent. It maybe a few days yet before the number of deaths attributed to the coronavirus start to slow.
Deaths in New York State dipped slightly yesterday to 777, but still climbed 11 percent to 7,844. New York State currently has a total of 170,512 cases, of which 92,384 are in New York City and 41,871 are on Long Island. The disease remains largely a down-state problem.
Hospitalization in New York is actually slowing and for the first time the state saw the number of patients in ICU units decline. Unfortunately, we can’t see the data behind this stat to determine if this is due to deaths or recoveries, but anecdotal reports indicate that far more patients on ventilators succumb to the disease than recover.
Globally, there are now more than 1.715 million cases and more than 103,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins. Countries where the virus is spreading the most rapidly include Russia, which now has 13,584 reported cases and India, with 7,600. Again, these are reported cases and no one knows how many cases go untested and unreported.
When do we Re-Open?
Just as President Trump announces a new task force will be formed to decide how and when to re-open America, we’re finally getting the truth about when the coronavirus-induced shutdown/stay home/martial law policies will be relaxed at the state level, and let’s just say it’s not happening until April. So batten down the hatches and find a new series to binge watch. We’re going to be here a while.
Los Angeles extends stay home order until May 15
New York State needs to test millions of people before they can safely reopen, according to Governor Cuomo. Considering that they’ve tested about 400,000, that’s going to take some doing.
Here’s a nice roundup on what needs to happen before the stay home orders can be lifted.
Other Notable News
A lengthy but interesting article from Politico on the coronavirus. Be sure to scroll down. I found sections 3 and 5 the most interesting.
A look at how ridiculously wrong all the COVID-19 models were. Unspoken: We may have built many of those extra hospital beds for nothing. I guess we can file this under better safe than sorry — after all, they were adhering to the prepper’s motto and preparing for the worst.
For some perspective, read yesterday’s report to see how the numbers have grown in 24 hour or look back a week ago when we had 220,000 fewer cases in the U.S.
Today’s dystopian main image is from Bigstock. This is how some picture the world with COVID-19.
