^As well as Apple.
California:
Deaths - 55
Positive - 2606
Today’s update from my med school lad shows 106 positive cases from 1537 tests (roughly 7% positive).
Of those 15 are currently in the hospital (9 in ICU) and 3 died giving a 17% “needs hospitalization” rate.
The actual current positive numbers range from 1 each in the 10-19 and 90-99 age groups to 23 in the 60-69 age group. There are 14 each in the 30-39 and 50-59 age groups. 12 each in the 20-29, 40-49, and 70-79 age groups. 6 in the 80-89 age group. (I’m not seeing a whole lot of variation TBH.)
Since that doesn’t add up to 106, I’m guessing the others (11) are the deaths or have recovered.
This is one county in NY (state, not city). Still, 1431 tested negative so one can’t conclude “most people” have it at this point. The vast majority of those being tested are those who show symptoms of some sort. Others are those with possible contacts.
New Zealand cases jump 30% as country heads into lockdown end of day
CNN
New Zealand has recorded a 30% jump in coronavirus cases as the country heads into lockdown by the end of day Wednesday, according to Ashley Bloomfield, the country’s Director of Health.
There are 47 new confirmed cases and three new probable cases, bringing the Pacific nation’s count up to 205, Bloomfield said at a news conference on Wednesday.
What is a probable case? New Zealand is including probable cases in its national count going forward, which includes people who present with coronavirus symptoms and have exposure history despite a negative test.
Bloomfield said the government will continue to see a rise for the next 10 days before a turnaround.
“The numbers will continue to increase before they turn around,” he said. “That turnaround will happen if all New Zealanders do what is asked of them – that is to stay at home, break the chain and save lives.”
Nevada governor prohibits public gatherings of 10 or more people
CNN
A new emergency order from Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak prohibits people from gathering in groups of 10 or more due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“Social distancing is our number one defense to defeat this virus,” Sisolak said in a Tuesday evening press conference.
The order does not apply to private homes or essential services.
It comes as Sisolak says the state is still struggling to determine how many people have been affected by Covid-19.
"Nevada has submitted four requests for Covid-19 testing components,” the governor said. “We have received zero shipments for Covid-19 testing components.”
FEMA obtains test kits from private market
From CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez
Hours after Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Pete Gaynor told CNN the administration will start wielding the powers in the Defense Production Act for 60,000 tests kits and "use the allocation portion of the DPA,” FEMA press secretary Lizzie Litzow said the agency was able to procure the kits from the private market.
"At the last minute we were able to procure the test kits from the private market without evoking the DPA,” Litzow said in a statement Monday evening.
Earlier Tuesday, Trump and Gaynor contradicted each other on whether the Defense Production Act was being used in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
Around 8 a.m. Tuesday, Trump tweeted, “The Defense Production Act is in full force, but haven’t had to use it because no one has said NO! Millions of masks coming as back up to States.”
Minutes later, Gaynor told CNN the administration was going to use the law.
“Just a little while ago my team came in and we’re actually going to use the DPA for first time today,” Gaynor said. In addition, FEMA will “insert some language into these mask contracts we have of 500 million masks,” Gaynor said. “DPA language will be in that today.”
Trump suggested at Tuesday’s afternoon briefing that his recent authorization of the DPA serves as enough “leverage” to compel companies to produce medical supplies without invoking the act to force them to start up production.
Nevada’s primary election will be conducted entirely by mail
From CNN’s Andy Rose
The Nevada primary scheduled for June 9 will go ahead as scheduled, but will be conducted only with absentee ballots, Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske announced Tuesday evening. This decision does not affect the results of Nevada’s presidential caucus that took place in February.
The state said all active registered voters will automatically receive a ballot in the mail. Voters can either mail in their ballot or drop it off at a designated location in each county.
Every county will have at least one poll worker in at least one location to accommodate voters who registered too late to receive an absentee ballot. Mail-in ballots can be postmarked by Election Day, but must be received by election officials within the following seven days to be counted.
More than half of New Orleans’ emergency medical workers are under quarantine, mayor says
CNN
More half of New Orleans’ medical emergency services personnel is under quarantine due to the coronavirus pandemic, the city’s mayor told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Tuesday.
With New Orleans hospitalizations expected to exceed their capacity in 11 days, according to the Louisiana Gov. John Bell Edwards, New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said she is looking for the federal government’s major disaster declaration to get a long-awaited relief.
“We’re looking for that declaration to be approved so that it can unlock the much needed resources that our first responders need on the ground. For example, my EMS department, over 50% of my people are now on quarantine. And so while we’ve unlocked additional resources at the state level, the state can no longer go on without federal assistance at this time,” Cantrell said.
There have been at least 375 cases of coronavirus and 26 deaths in New Orleans so far, the mayor said.
Australia bans overseas travel and extends social restrictions
From Hilary Whiteman in Brisbane and Akanksha Sharma in Hong Kong
CNN
Australia banned overseas travel and extended social restrictions in order to tackle the spread of the novel coronavirus, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced on Tuesday.
The decision to ban overseas travel is aligned with Australia’s upgraded “Level 4: do not travel” and comes under the Biosecurity Act of 2015, Morrison said.
“We will be living with this virus for at least six months” Morrison warned, stating further that, “The highest priority should be placed on social isolation measures.”
To that effect, the Australian prime minister unveiled stricter social distancing measures that include weddings with a maximum attendance of no more than five people and funerals with no more than 10 people, with one person per 4 square metre (or at least 6 feet apart).
Australia reported a jump of 429 new confirmed cases of novel coronavirus on Wednesday, taking the national tally to 2,252 cases of which eight have died, according to the country’s Department of Health.
Chicago Police Department has 6 cases of coronavirus
From CNN’s Dave Alsup and Raja Razek
Chicago Police Department has six confirmed Covid-19 cases, Supt. Charlie Beck announced Tuesday.
“Two of these cases came from the same facility. And two of the officers are hospitalized,” he said.
“In order to keep officers safe, we have distributed over 12,000 protective gear kits to the district,” Beck added
As for law enforcement since Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued a stay-at-home order last week, Beck said, “We have issued zero citations and zero arrests for violations of the health order. We have also seen significant evidence that Chicago is staying home.”
Beck also said that 911 calls are down 30% this month.
Alabama NICU nurse tests positive for coronavirus. Now a baby is in isolation.
From CNN’s Pamela Kirkland
Brandon Waltman went to visit his newborn baby girl in the neonatal intensive care unit of an Alabama hospital Monday night. His daughter Emmarie Grace Waltman has been in NICU at the University of South Alabama Women’s Hospital for the past month, but last night, he was told she had been moved to a different part of the hospital.
Waltman said he was told Emmarie was taken to a different room because a nurse tested positive for coronavirus and is being isolated as a precaution. After watching the news about the spread of the virus over the last few weeks, Waltman said he wasn’t surprised.
“I felt like it was inevitable,” he told CNN. Born February 20, Emmarie was in the NICU for issues associated with feeding, her father said.
Now he and his wife can only visit Emmarie one at a time in a low pressure room in order to prevent any potential spread of coronavirus.
“It’s rough. But today is about pushing so some of this doesn’t happen again to her or God forbid anybody else,” he told CNN
Gary Mans, an associate vice president for Marketing and Communications at USA Health, said in a statement that a staff member within the health system had tested positive, but declined to say in which department.
Waltman said he is anxious to get his daughter home to Mississippi to quarantine together as a family, but he isn’t sure when Emmarie will be released. The family’s home is about an hour away from the hospital.
He said his daughter isn’t showing any symptoms of Covid-19 and he hopes it’ll stay that way.
“I don’t think she’s going to test positive,” he said. “She’s one of the, probably the biggest and the healthiest babies in the NICU.”
London mayor says tube services running at a maximum despite government criticism
From CNN’s Nada Bashir
London’s Mayor Sadiq Khan has hit back at government criticism over the capital’s tube network running a reduced service amid the Covid-19 outbreak, telling local news outlets that Transport for London (TFL) is operating the maximum number of tube services it can, while maintaining safety.
“We’re running the maximum tubes we can, as safely as we can. That roughly means that there are 55% of the tubes running,” Khan said Tuesday in an interview with Channel 4 News.
The London’s mayor’s remarks come after images of London’s tube services circulated Tuesday morning depicting crowded trains, despite the virtual lockdown imposed by the government on Monday.
“The good news is that we’ve seen about an 85% reduction in the number of passengers. The concern is that too many people aren’t following the rules and the instructions, which is to stay at home,” Khan added.
Earlier on Tuesday, UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock criticized Transport for London’s decision to run a reduced service, suggesting that an increase in the number of tubes running would allow members of the public to adhere to the government’s social-distancing guidelines, while traveling on the underground network.
“TFL should have the tube running in full so that people travelling on the tube can be spaced out and further apart, obeying the two metre rule as best possible,” Hancock said during the government’s daily COVID-19 press briefing.
“There is no good reason in the information that I’ve seen that the current levels of tube provision should be as low as they are. We should have more tube trains running,” the Health Secretary added.
Speaking to BBC London, Khan denounced the “blame game being played” by Hancock, highlighting the “heroic” work being carried out by TFL staff, and the pressure placed on TFL by the number of staff members who are off work.
“About a third of TFL staff are off work, mainly because of themselves having COVID-19, or members of their family having the symptoms, which means they are self-isolating…TFL are running the maximum service they’re able to do safely, with the number of staff that they have got,” Khan asserted.
I’ve done a comparison of the 10 states with the highest number of cases and compared it to their population. I also compared the # of deaths to their population.
I used Wikipedia for population (7/1/2019).
Keeping in mind that # of cases can seem high because testing is going well, and also that these numbers will change every day, here are the findings for today, 3/24/2020:
Highest number of cases per capita (for these top 10 states)
New York
New Jersey
Washington
Louisiana
Michigan
Massachusetts
Illinois
Georgia
Florida
California
Highest number of deaths per capita:
Washington
New York
Louisiana
New Jersey
Georgia
Massachusetts/Michigan
Illinois/California
Florida
Remember that California has 39.5 million people, and Florida has 21.5 million when you look at number of cases and deaths compared to say, Massachusetts with 6.9 million people and Louisiana with only 4.6 million people.
LA mayor says “we will not be back to normal” by Easter after Trump comments
CNN
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said the city will not be back to normal by Easter, a response to President Donald Trump’s earlier remarks today that he wants the nation “opened up and just raring to go by Easter.”
“Some are putting out that hope of us being back in churches by Easter or synagogues by Passover in a couple weeks … I think we owe it to everybody to be straightforward and honest that we will not be back to normal in that short amount of time,” Mayor Garcetti said at a news conference Tuesday. “I have said be prepared for a couple months like this.”
Garcetti said LA is about six to 12 days behind the surge in coronavirus cases and deaths reported in New York City.
The mayor urged the federal government to continue acting to “make sure we can get the supplies that we need for those professionals who are bravely meeting this challenge head on.”
India faces up to potential coronavirus crisis, but is the country really prepared for a 21-day lockdown?
From CNN’s Julia Hollingsworth, Manveena Suri and Swati Gupta
India’s normally bustling streets are quiet. Delivery drivers wear gloves and face masks. Even the country’s unrelenting construction has come to a halt.
It’s all part of India’s unprecedented 21-day bid to stop the coronavirus pandemic in its tracks with a nationwide lockdown.
India is the world’s second-most populous country and has the fifth-biggest economy, with trade connections all over the world. Yet despite its size, the country of 1.34 billion appears to have avoided the full hit of the pandemic. To date, India has only 519 confirmed cases of coronavirus and nine deaths, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). By contrast, South Korea – which has a population only 3.8% the size of India’s – has more than 9,000 cases.
China, where the outbreak was first identified, has more than 81,000 confirmed cases in a population of 1.39 billion.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has maintained there is no sign of community spread, and the WHO has praised India’s swift response, which has included grounding domestic and international commercial flights and suspending all tourist visas.
But fears are growing that the country remains susceptible to a wider, potentially more damaging outbreak. Experts have cautioned that India is not testing enough people to know the true extent of the issue – and warn that it is home to a unique set of issues that could accelerate the spread of the virus.
Miami mayor, still under quarantine himself, asks city to shelter-in-place
Francis Suarez, who tested positive for Covid-19, issued a message from self-quarantine: City residents should shelter. in. place. .
Mayor Francis Suarez
@FrancisSuarez
Yesterday, I was retested as part of the official process to be released from quarantine. Here are my results as well as some major announcements regarding new testing and safety measures in the @CityofMiami.
Suarez has said that he’s experienced little to no symptoms, writing in the New York Times that his diagnosis has provided him “a rare opportunity to put a face to this virus, to shed much-needed light about what it’s like to live with it, and bring a sense of calm to my city’s residents”.
In a video message, he also said that Miami has opened a new testing center and made provisions to test elderly residents at their homes. (Guardian)
Leaders in California are scrambling to prepare the state amid a shortage of hospital beds, limited access to masks and ventilators and a patchwork approach to testing, as a surge of cases in New York provides a warning of how quickly the coronavirus crisis could spiral out of control.
The number of cases in New York state had soared by Tuesday morning, with 25,665 confirmed infected with 210 deaths. “We are now in New York City the epicenter of this crisis in the United States of America,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said Sunday. “The worst is yet to come.”
Three thousand miles west in California, where a statewide stay-at-home order took effect Friday, California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, was readying the state for a 90-day surge in cases, a demand that would require adding 50,000 hospital beds to the state’s portfolio. Tuesday saw the death of a patient under the age of 18 in Los Angeles, who is believed to be the nation’s first child death from the virus.
The projections Newsom offered rose over the past week as the governor took to Facebook live to hold near-nightly press conferences. Newsom said Monday night the state is also hoping to secure 1,000 beds in hotels to shelter the unhoused during the outbreak. (Guardian)
New York is reporting more cases — but it’s also testing more.
Today’s briefing made clear that New York is now being treated as a hot zone. The state reported 25,665 cases of Covid-19, as of. this morning, with 210 deaths. Nearly 15,000 cases were concentrated in New York City.
But New York is also testing residents more often.
Nate Silver
@NateSilver538
· 37m
A week ago, New York state had 87 detected coronavirus cases per 1m citizens
Here’s where a lot of Southern states are today… the number of detected cases.
LA: 298 per 1m
MS: 107 per 1m
TN: 98 per 1m
GA: 98 per 1m
AR: 72 per 1m
FL: 66 per 1m
SC: 59 per 1m
AL: 44 per 1m
Nate Silver
@NateSilver538
Other than Louisiana, which has really ramped up its testing, a lot of those states may be about a week behind the curve in New York in terms of both social distancing and testing/case-detection. (Guardian)
Z
Idk how to help but I hope you can. Would be interesting to see the number of tested, confirmed, and death vs. population, each day for each state.
My husband keeps a spreadsheet for NJ and the dots are on a straight line with r2 is close to 1 which is a bit scary…
South Korea tightens border checks for US travellers
South Korea said it would tighten border checks for travellers from the United States by Friday as concerns rise over imported coronavirus cases despite a decline in domestically transmitted infections.
Seoul has imposed strict border checks on visitors from Europe, China, Italy and Iran, requiring them to sign up to a smartphone application to track whether they have any symptoms such as fever. A two-week mandatory quarantine for all long-term arrivals from Europe took effect last Thursday.
Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said similar measures should be implemented for entries from the United States no later than Friday.
“We don’t have much time given the situation where our citizens living in North America including students who are anxious about a rise in confirmed patients there and expected to return home,” Chung told a meeting.
Bolsonaro says he ‘wouldn’t feel anything’ if infected with Covid-19 and attacks state lockdowns
Brazil’s far-right president Jair Bolsonaro has claimed he “wouldn’t feel anything” if infected with coronavirus and rubbished efforts to contain the illness with large-scale quarantines as his country’s two biggest cities went into shutdown in a desperate bid to save lives.
In a televised address to the nation on Tuesday night, Bolsonaro slammed what he branded the economically damaging “scorched earth” tactics being used to slow the advance of an illness that has now claimed about 15,000 lives around the world.
“The virus has arrived and we are fighting it and soon it will pass,” claimed Bolsonaro, who is facing a growing backlash in Brazil for repeatedly dismissing coronavirus as a media “fantasy” and “trick”.
Bolsonaro’s incendiary remarks came as both Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo were placed under partial lockdown by municipal and state authorities who fear an explosion of cases in the coming days.
UN urges G20 to adopt wartime plan
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged leaders of the worlds 20 major industrialised nations on Tuesday to adopt a wartime plan including a stimulus package in the trillions of dollars for businesses, workers and households in developing countries trying to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.
He said in a letter to G20 leaders that they account for 85% of the worlds gross domestic product and have a direct interest and critical role to play in helping developing countries cope with the crisis.
“Let us remember that we are only as strong as the weakest health system in our interconnected world,” the UN chief said. “We must create the conditions and mobilise the resources necessary to ensure that developing countries have equal opportunities to respond to this crisis in their communities and economies.”
Guterres warned: Anything short of this commitment would lead to a pandemic of apocalyptic proportions affecting us all.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said G20 leaders are expected to hold a virtual summit meeting Thursday.
In Argentina, new cases of coronavirus had their greatest daily leap so far Tuesday, with 86 new reported cases and two new deaths, bringing the total tally to 387 cases and six deaths so far. Argentina’s number is expected to grow at an accelerating pace in the days ahead, according to government projections, which estimate a minimum of 250,000 cases in the coming months.
The capital city of Buenos Aires and the Greater Buenos Aires area, which have a combined population of nearly 13 million people, continue to be the hardest hit, with 60 of the new cases Tuesday. With testing capabilities limited, the real number is believed to be much higher.
Authorities are worried about the importation of more coronavirus cases, despite all incoming flights being suspended, with the repatriation of tens of thousands of Argentinians still stranded in Europe, the US and especially from South American neighbours Chile and Brazil, where the lockdown has not been as stringent.
Authorities are hoping to stay ahead of the curve of the virus by reacting earlier than Spain or Italy did. “It’s a race against time,” said Buenos Aires governor Axel Kiciloff, whose province has been the hardest hit so far. “It’s a war and the first thing in a war is to save lives,” said Santa Fe governor Omar Perotti.
The country’s lockdown, originally set to end next Monday, looks certain to be extended until at least April 13 now.
“My hand will not shake,” President Alberto Fernández said, should he need to sign an extension.
Guardian
Must be a typo. There are 675 known cases in the city as of today.
@Nhatrang - some kind moderator unlocked my post! It’s #9986
Thanks @greenwitch !
I wonder if you could copy and paste the spreadsheet so we can see the numbers too
One aspect of this pandemic that makes it unique is that it has hit the elite and the affluent most heavily in the first wave here (US). People who have the means and opportunity to travel have been hardest hit. Historically, most pandemics affected the poor first, but not this one.
The president of Harvard, Lawrence Bacow, and his wife have been diagnosed.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/24/us/harvard-president-wife-coronavirus-positive-test-trnd/index.html
Somebody posted this link earlier today - comparison of US counties based on the population. New Orleans was ahead of some of the NY even NYC counties. The numbers are from yesterday.
https://www.nola.com/news/coronavirus/article_c0509efc-6d4f-11ea-ae50-236ff5752610.html
Another small county and town who don’t want people from the outside flying in.
People just don’t seem to get that shelter in place means stay where you are and don’t spread the virus around.
Speaking of the elite and affluent:
New Orleans should never have had Mardi Gras. Dumb move.
The transmission seems so erratic that I am not sure how state figures help at all. In some states, like Washinton and Louisiana, the nursing homes have been hit hard, with predictable results of contagion and death. Other states have not had it infect the nursing homes yet, so their victims are the well-travelled and those who socialize with them. Presumably lower death rates in that group.
There is a huge difference in relative numbers between the states which took steps early and enforced them, and those which either took no steps, took them late (Florida), or failed to enforce them (NYC).
This is from March 21st, so some states have added restrictions, but as you can see on the map, most of the southern states were really slow in enacting limitations on movement and and interactions. https://www.cleveland.com/metro/2020/03/50-states-of-coronavirus-how-every-state-in-the-us-has-responded-to-the-pandemic.html
Add to the effect of not closing things down, the effect of Spring Break on FLA and other states which kept their beaches open until past mid March. FLA will have the number of cases taking off, as will GA and Louisiana. I’m surprised that Virginia is not seeing more cases.
The state to follow is Ohio, which enacted the tightest restrictions earliest. So far, things are looking better for OH than for places like Michigan (the map missed the fact that OH issues a “shelter in place” order a few hours after Illinois, and had closed restaurants and schools far sooner after the first cases were detected than other states.
Illinois will still see a burst of cases caused by the lack of of bar closures on St Patrick’s day, and the effects of the debacle in O’Hare caused by the mass return of American citizens due to the confusing announcement by Trump which didn’t clarify that the travel ban was limited to foreign nationals.
That’s what scares me. When this hits low income areas it’s going to be brutal.