COVID-19 day 155: 📈 2,347,022 cases; 121,228 deaths : 23 June 2020
AZ, FL, TX show possible exponential growth, CA, a spike; FL changes how hospitals report ICU bed usage; WA governor makes masks mandatory; day-to-day reported deaths on slight but steady decline
It’s day 155 since the first case of coronavirus disease was announced in the United States. Four states report more than 3,000 new cases, with Texas leading the pack with 5,489. Arizona, Florida and Texas are demonstrating exponential growth.
Texas COVID-19 hospitalizations have set news records for 12 days in a row. Arizona has also set record hospitalizations.
Could air conditioning, coupled with minimal mask wearing, be a culprit? We are swinging into summer. Houston was 80; Los Angeles was 77; Miami was 90; Phoenix was 110.
On 01 June, daily cases grew by 1.20% from the day before; today they grew by 1.50% from Monday. However, the percentage change in day-to-day death reports has been steadily declining, from 1.33% on 01 June to 0.69% today. That is a bright highlight in an otherwise gloomy report.
🦠 Tuesday, Johns Hopkins reported 2,347,022 (2,312,302) cases and 121,228 (120,402) deaths, an increase of 1.50% (1.38%) and 0.69% (0.36%), respectively, since Monday (Sunday). A week ago, the daily numbers increased by 1.12% and 0.72%, respectively.
The seven-day average: 29,125 (27,279) cases and 638 (584) deaths
Percent of cases leading to death: 5.17% (5.21%)
Today’s case rate is 709.06 per 100,000; the death rate, 36.62 per 100,000.
One week ago, the case rate was 645.83 per 100,000; the death rate, 35.34 per 100,000.
Note: numbers in (.) are from the prior day and are provided for context. I include the seven-day average because dailies vary so much in the course of a week, particularly over a weekend.
🤓 Recommended reading
A look inside Thailand, which prevented coronavirus from gaining a foothold. National Geographic, 18 June 2020.
How a West Baltimore nursing home has zero COVID-19 infections. Baltimore Sun, 18 June 2020.
How Those With Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Cope With Added Angst Of COVID. Kaiser Health News, 22 June 2020.
🔬 Research and medical news
A group of nurses at a Georgia hospital have filed a lawsuit accusing their CEO of what they call a "COVID-19 coverup" involving the improper collection of test samples to reduce positive test results for the virus and downplay its spread.
Nurses' Lawsuit Claims 'Fabricated' COVID-19 Tests at Georgia Hospital. Medscape, 22 June 2020.
Why do we test? Are our COVID tests being conducted as a means stop transmission, like they are in China, to identify people who are breathing out the virus to all passersby? Or are they being conducted like an accountant managing a spreadsheet? And how does either purpose translate to the hospitalized patient who clearly has coronavirus but who consistently tests negative?
How reliable are COVID-19 tests? New York Magazine, 10 June 2020.
Sections (no jump links, sorry!)
1, Around the country; 2, Around the world; 3, Politics, economics and COVID-19; 4, Case count; 5, What you can do and resources
⓵ Around the country
☆ In some regional hospitals in Texas, officials are reporting that ICU units are near or over capacity. The worry: that should infections continue to rise, hospitals could become overwhelmed
In the hard-hit Houston region, hospitals have begun moving coronavirus patients from crowded ICUs to other facilities. A local children’s hospital said this week it is admitting transfer patients, with and without the virus, to help other facilities manage their capacity.
A look at the Houston situation:
Houston could experience a mid-July peak of 2,000 daily hospitalizations.
🍎Washington joins other 16 states that have either mandated or requested that citizens wear masks in public: California (18 June), Connecticut (20 April), Delaware (28 April), District of Columbia (13 May), Hawaii (20 April), Illinois (01 May), Kentucky (11 May), Maine (01 May), Maryland (18 April), Massachusetts (06 May), Michigan (26 April), New Jersey (08 April), New Mexico (16 May), New York (17 April), Pennsylvania (19 April) and Rhode Island (18 April.
I think of these face coverings, in some sense, as a statement. It's a statement that when you wear it, it means you care about people, because it means you want to reduce the risk that you are going to infect another person. Governor Jay Inslee, press event
⓶ Around the world
Each day, I am more convinced that Asian countries have a better strategy. “Flatten the curve” makes sense early in the pandemic with so many uncertainties. That was January. This is June.
The difference: national leadership and commitment to science/public health.
⓷ Politics, economics and COVID-19
During a live public briefing on Facebook last month, "someone very casually suggested" the Los Angeles County's public health director should be shot, the director said.
"I didn't immediately see the message, but my husband did, my children did, and so did my colleagues," Dr. Barbara Ferrer said Monday in a statement.
The toll on public health officials continues. As of Monday, at least 24 public health officials had either resigned, retired or been fired since the pandemic started, according to the National Association of City and County Health Officials.
⛱ Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, via the Surgeon General, has directed hospitals to change how they report intensive-care bed use in the state. Rather than “how many beds” are in use, hospitals are to report the number being used with “intensive level of care.” Coincidentally (not), case numbers are rising steeply.
🌵President Trump held a rally in Phoenix today. Local officials “declined to enforce local requirements to wear masks in public spaces.” Rally attendees “largely bucked the mandate and ignored social distancing guidelines.”
Just as I can’t walk into a retail store and light up a cigarette, I shouldn’t be able to walk into a retail store without wearing a mask. These are basic public health measures that I think should be implemented across the country. It’s not that inconvenient and if it helps us stay open and avoid our hospitals getting overwhelmed, it feels to me like it’s well worth the cost. Ashish Jha, the director of the Harvard Global Health Institute
⓸ Case count
There is a lag between being contagious and showing symptoms, between having a test and getting its results. There is also a lag in reports of cases and deaths making their way into daily results; this lag is visible in predictable declines for both reports containing weekend data.
🌎 23 June
Globally: 8 993 659 cases (133 326 new) with 469 587 deaths (3 847 new)
The Americas: 4 437 946 cases (67 425 new) with 224 207 deaths (2 436 new)
US: 2 268 753 cases (27 575 new) with 119 761 deaths (308 new)
Johns Hopkins interactive dashboard (11.00 pm Pacific)
Global confirmed: 9,264,569 (9,098,643)
Total deaths: 477,601 (472,171)
Recovered: 4,630,880 (4,526,333)
🇺🇸 23 June
CDC: 2,302,288 (26,643) cases and 120,333 (410) deaths
Johns Hopkins*: 2,347,022 (2,312,302) cases and 121,228 (120,402) deaths
State data*: 2,331,093 (2,297,760) identified cases and 114,821 (114,034) deaths
KS reports only M-W-F; LA reported an unusually high number, has been updating the databaseTotal tests (US, Johns Hopkins): 28,065,065 (27,553,581)
Take with a grain of salt. Tests not necessarily people. The CDC and at least 11 other states have combined the data for active infections with data for antibodies, boosting total number of tests which can drop the percentage who test positive.
📣 View weekly state infographics
* Johns Hopkins data, ~11.00 pm Pacific.
State data include DC, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands
The virus was not created in a lab and the weight of evidence is it was not released intentionally. Although early reports tied the outbreak to a market in Wuhan, China, analyses of genomic data in January suggested that the virus might have developed elsewhere.
⓹ What you can do
Stay home as much as possible, period.
Wear a mask when near non-family members.
Digestive problems may be a symptom.
Resources
👓 See COVID-19 resource collection at WiredPen.
📝 Subscribe to Kathy’s COVID-19 Memo :: COVID-19 Memo archives
🦠 COVID-19 @ WiredPen.com
📊 Visualizations: US, World
🌐 Global news (at WiredPen)