COVID-19 day 88 : 📈 706,779 cases; 37,079 deaths : 17 April 2020
Florida opens its beaches; Belgium has the highest death rate in the world; Trump eggs on protesters; testing remains a bottleneck to reopening; 3D printers may help with test sample kits
It’s day 88 since the first case of coronavirus disease was announced in the United States. It was a dismal day.
In Europe, Belgium has passed Spain and Italy in the grim deaths per million stat: 446. (The US rate is 214 per million).
The US reported 3,793 deaths.
Florida re-opened beaches. And although Palm Beach County ranks second for total number of COVID-19 deaths in the state, its testing lags other large counties.
On Friday, President Trump called for insurrection on Twitter, targeting three Democratic governors: Michigan, Minnesota and Virginia. In California, protesters gathered at Huntington Beach.
Compare and contrast.
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Friday, Johns Hopkins reported 706,779 (671,425) cases and 37,079 (33,286) deaths in the US, an increase of 5.3% and 11.4%, respectively, since Thursday.
That case rate is 213.53 per 100,000; the death rate is 112.02 per million.
One week ago, the case rate was 151.54 per 100,000; the death rate, 56.73 per million.
🤓Recommended reading
Coronavirus at Smithfield pork plant: The untold story of America's biggest outbreak. BBC, 17 April 2020. This story finds me, not the other way around.
Here’s What We Know about the Most Touted Drugs Tested for COVID-19. Scientific American, 16 April 2020.
How does coronavirus kill? Clinicians trace a ferocious rampage through the body, from brain to toes. Science, 17 April 2020.
🔬Research and medical news
The University of Washington lab is performing Q/A testing an Abbott labs test to determine if a blood sample from a confirmed COVID-19 patient has antibodies. This blood test takes just under an hour to run.
The UW Medicine Virology Lab has played a longstanding role in validating diagnostic tests for infectious diseases and immunity. It was one of the first labs to develop its own tests for the presence of virus that causes COVID-19, and is currently capable of processing thousands of coronavirus tests daily. Thanks to that track record, Abbott gave the lab early access to its antibody test, also known as a serology test.
Patients will need to be referred by a doctor; the lab can process about 4,000 tests per day but hopes to ramp up to three times that.
What are COVIC toes? Dr. Lindy Fox, professor of dermatology at University of California, San Francisco, told Today “that it has appeared as ‘purple, red bumps’ on the tips of digits and pads, or on the tops of toes or sides of feet.” [warning: pictures]
⓵ Around the country
All 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands have identified COVID-19 cases and all have at least one death.
At Friday’s briefing, Assistant Secretary for Health Brett Giroir, said we will at least 4.5 million tests a month “before it’s safe to move into Phase 1 of the administration’s Opening Up America Again.”
Take that promise with a grain of salt.
March 21: Trump > there will be 27 million coronavirus test kits for patients by the end of the month.
April 17: The US has actually tested 3,574,392 people.
Governors continue to report that testing kits are in short supply; it doesn’t matter if labs have ramped up (White House talking point) if there is no way to get tests to them. Millions are needed just for Washington, Oregon and California.
Kansas plans to us 3D printers to manufacture 1,000 testing swabs a week to test for coronavirus.
Gov. Laura Kelly (D) and her top public health administrator, Dr. Lee Norman, have complained for weeks that Kansas isn't a priority for testing supplies and personal protective equipment from the federal government or even private vendors, making it difficult to get them.
So what is a “test kit”?
There is excess capacity in the labs, which also use "kits" to test the samples. The shortage is in sample collection kits (lay person's definition of a "test kit").
⓶ Around the world
The number of affected countries/territories/areas jumped from 29 at the end of February to 208 today. Although early reports tied the outbreak to a seafood (“wet”) market in Wuhan, China, analyses of genomic data suggest that the virus may have developed elsewhere.
Although the virus seems to be stabilizing or slowing in Italy (285/100,000), Spain (408/100,000) and Switzerland (313/100,000), three particularly hard-hit nations, on the continent as a whole, cases continue to climb.
Belgium has the world’s highest death rate, 445 per million, but a relatively small population (11,576,727). One reason for the boost may be that they include “confirmed corona deaths in hospitals together with deaths in care homes, which include suspected but unconfirmed COVID-19 cases.”
The British government has extended a nationwide coronavirus lockdown by at least three weeks; it started on 23 March. The United States is the only major country that has not implemented a national lockdown.
Russia has reported low numbers, and no one knows how accurate they might be. Today they reported almost 5,000 cases in a single day, but their per capita rate remains low.
Wuhan is conducting large scale, random testing to try to determine the levels of antibodies in the general population.
⓷ Politics, economics and COVID-19
From Axios (17 April)
People will only return to work "after there’s enough capacity in the hospitals, after there’s proper amount of testing," JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon told analysts…
"If we don’t get this right, the public health and economic costs could become even more daunting," Suzanne Clark, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce CEO, wrote in a USA Today op-ed.
⓸ Case count
There is a lag between being contagious and showing symptoms, between having a test and getting its results. The virus was not created in a lab.
🌎 17 April
Globally: 2 074 529 confirmed (82 967 - new) with 139 378 deaths (8493 - new)
The Americas: 743 607 confirmed (36 486 - new) with 33 028 deaths (2783 - new)
Johns Hopkins interactive dashboard (11.30 pm Pacific)
Global confirmed: 2,249,662 (2,159,450)
Total deaths: 154,254 (145,568)
🇺🇸 17 April
CDC: 661,712 (632,548) cases and xxx (31,071) deaths
Johns Hopkins*: 706,779 (671,425) cases and 37,079 (33,286)
State data*: 696,622 (665,970 ) identified cases and 32,494 (30,425)
Total tested (US, Johns Hopkins): 3,574,392 (3,420,394)
View infographic and data online: total cases, cases/100,000 and deaths/million.
* Johns Hopkins data, ~11.30 pm Pacific.
State data include DC, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands
See US (state/territory) total cases, cases/100,000 and deaths/million as infographics.
⓹ What you can do
Stay home as much as possible, period.
Digestive problems may be a symptom.
Resources
👓 See COVID-19 resource collection at WiredPen.
📝 Subscribe to Kathy’s Daily Memo :: Daily Memo archives
🦠 COVID-19 @ WiredPen.com
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