In the past 24 hours, the U.S. hit two coronavirus milestones: 100,000 deaths and 1.7 million cases. Other than that, the coronavirus news in the U.S. isn’t bad. In fact, it appears that people, including the media, are holding their breath waiting to see if there is a surge in cases or if COVID-19 really is seasonal.
In the past 24 hours, there have been only 17,200 new cases of COVID-19 reported in the U.S., an uptick of 1 percent, bringing the grand total to 1,707,700. Deaths reached 100,426, an increase of 1,410.
On the international side of things, Brazil has crossed the 400,000 mark, reporting 411,821 cases. That’s an increase of about 100,000 cases per week. The daily death toll in Brazil has at times been the highest in the world, and Brazil’s numbers are thought to be greatly under-reported. Brazil is already the country with the second most cases behind the U.S. and will soon pass France and Spain in the number of reported deaths.
Globally, reported cases grew by 104,000 to 5.722 million, an increase of 1.6 percent. Deaths climbed to 356,279, an increase of more than 5,000.
Civil Unrest
COVID-19 has been knocked out of the news today by protests and subsequent rioting spurred by the death of George Floyd who, according to a police statement, “appeared to be suffering medical distress” after being handcuffed. Later, video footage showed that the “medical distress” appeared to be the direct result of a police officer kneeling on his neck for a lengthy period of time.
As I said in April, protesting is American as apple pie. I can think of no better reason to protest than police brutality and other governmental abuses of power. It is unfortunate when protesting turns to rioting, which harms both the cause and the community.
For more on protests and how to protect yourself from civil unrest and rioting, I refer you to my previous article, Will the Coronavirus Crisis Lead to Civil Unrest?
