Reported cases of COVID-19 continue to rise, growing at a rate of 8 percent in the past 24 hours to 463,619, an increase of 34,355. Deaths also increased by 1,875, or 13 percent, to 16,695. The U.S. has now surpassed Spain and has the second highest COVID-19 death toll, behind Italy.
Most experts hope this weekend will represent the peak and we’ll see deaths start to slowly drop off, much as the rate of case growth has slowed. Only time will tell if the models are correct.
New York also experienced its worst day, reporting 799 deaths and 10,621 new cases, giving them a total of 7,067 deaths and 159,937 cases. Hospital admissions continue to drop, a hopeful sign, but for just how long can New York continue to see 10,000 new cases today?
Globally, growth jumped another 100,000 cases, to 1.619 million with 97,200 deaths. We’ll no doubt be reporting more than 100,000 deaths attributed to COVID-19 tomorrow, even with things slowing slightly in Europe.
Economic Impact Grows
The longer the country is shut down, the worse things look for the economy, and the same holds true in Europe and the rest of the world. As waves of cases ripple across the globe, it becomes clearer that the economic impact of social distancing is going to be felt for some time.
We’ve written about the long recovery already and will be addressing economic issues in the future. But for now, here are some interesting articles:
- Unemployment has rocketed upward as company closures, layoffs and furloughs send employees to the sidelines — and the unemployment lines.
- Farmers forced to dump food and milk, break eggs, as changes to U.S. food distribution caused by the coronavirus disrupt food delivery
- The lack of travel is hurting economies dependent on tourism, like Las Vegas, airlines, cruise ships, hotels, and amusement parks.
- Even restaurants with drive through service and healthy delivery services are suffering during the outbreak.
- And then there’s this from the Associated Press: Economic Devastation Loops on a Good Friday Like no Other.
To put today’s data in perspective, you can look back at yesterday’s numbers or see our report from a week ago when there were only 244,228 cases in the U.S.
Opening photo by Bytemarks was cropped and resized prior to use. Used under CC by 2.0 license.
