COVID-19 day 83 : 📈 557,571 cases; 22,108 deaths : 12 April 2020
Deaths at senior living facility in Quebec; Singapore sets fines for physical distancing failure; southwest Georgia, Navajo nation illustrate how discussing only raw numbers masks community impact
It’s day 83 since the first case of coronavirus disease was announced in the United States. Tonight’s issue: why raw numbers mask the effects of coronavirus.
That lead in chart? I created it because a friend in Atlanta is going to be interviewing a legislator this week. She (my friend) called and asked me to think about questions. I already knew that southwest Georgia was in trouble, because I’ve been following the daily reports from Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital in Albany.
In case it’s not obvious, the first five counties are the top five in death rate. The top two? My homes, before and after college. There are slightly fewer deaths in these five counties than the nine I’ve picked for metro-Atlanta.
But the population difference is breath-taking. Metro-Atlanta: 4.4 million. The five southwest Georgia counties: 132,000.
I didn’t realize that Georgia now reports cases and deaths by county (scroll below the map of the state). That dark blue blob? It’s more than a dozen counties (they are physically small). And check out the really poorly thought out top case rate for the map: 200 - 1626.6?
This is an area accustomed to natural disasters like tornadoes. Not a lingering, invisible foe. Kaiser details the experience of a small Louisiana hospital (25 beds) and reminds the reader that all hospitals, not just rural ones, are taking a serious - for some, catastrophic - financial hit with this disease. Even before COVID-19, 1-in-4 rural hospitals were “at high risk of closing due to financial challenges.”
The situation in this poor, agricultural, heavily-black section of my home state is dire. If a rural area of any state becomes a hot spot, I fear that this will happen there, too.
~~~
Sunday, Johns Hopkins reported 557,571 (529,951) cases and 22,108 (20,608) deaths in the US, an increase of 5.2% and 7.28%, respectively, since Saturday. The rate of increase continues to slow.
That case rate is 168.45 per 100,000; the death rate is 66.79 per million.
One week ago, the case rate was 94 per 100,000; the death rate is 25.69 per million.
One week ago, the day-to-day increase was 12.3% and 18.6%, respectively.
🤓Recommended reading
Halleh Akbarnia, an ER doc in Chicago, shared a lovely story about C-19 on Facebook on 07 April. The LA Times reprinted it as an op-ed. And put it behind their paywall.
I’m studying in the U.S., my family is in Italy. Every day is filled with mutual, gut-wrenching worry. STAT News, 12 April 2020.
🎦Recommended viewing
💃🏼Life hack
When you hit a paywall, if it is a news site you frequent often, please consider a subscription. Even if it’s just for a month.
Or create an account for the obligatory free-access-with-email. Create a throw-away email address at gmail or yahoo if you don’t want to worry about spam.
Otherwise, try (a) accessing through your library with your online account, (b) opening in a different browser, (c) opening in an incognito window, or (d) opening the link on mobile.
Using your library: start with this list of state libraries. Yours might have COVID-19 resources, like Washington’s.
Get a library card; if you have one already, add a digital account. Seattle Public Library now allows you to create that digital account online with a mobile phone number.
Then review your library’s online databases to find online newspapers and magazines.
🌐Global news (links to free/covid-specific sections where possible)
// CIDRAP / STAT News // Financial Times / Global China Daily / New Straits Times / South China Morning Post / The Age / The Globe and Mail / The Guardian // LA Times / New York Times / Seattle Times / Wall Street Journal / Washington Post // The Atlantic / The Conversation / The Economist / ProPublica // ABC News (Australia) / BBC News / BBC News China / CBC (Canada) // ABC News (US) / CBS News / CNBC / CNN / C-SPAN / NBC News //
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. The only state with no reported deaths is Wyoming.
No Burning Man this year.
Virginia is transforming the general election: Election Day will be a holiday; voters will no longer need to show a photo ID prior voting; and early voting will be accessible to anyone, no reason required, and allowed 45 days before an election.
We’ve heard about 3D printing in Italy, used to manufacture a respirator part. Now a 3D mask designed in Seattle has gotten federal approval. It’s the first of its kind, and the pattern is free.
Not unlike the rural south, the rural southwest is struggling with a coronavirus outbreak in the Navajo nation.
As of Wednesday night, the virus had killed 20 people on the reservation, compared with 16 in the entire state of New Mexico, which has a population 13 times larger.
Wyoming, the only state without a confirmed COVID-19 death, is the last state to come under a national disaster declaration; Trump approved it Saturday.
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.
Boris Johnson has been discharged from the hospital.
In Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega hasn’t been seen in public in a month. And the country is promoting events, not encouraging people to practice physical distancing.
In the past month in Quebec, 31 people at a private Montreal-area senior residence have died; five are confirmed COVID-19 cases.
It was only after issuing two formal notices and an eventual court order under Quebec's Public Health Act that officials were able to see residents' medical files and information about family contacts.
Singapore began tightening the economy last week, by mandating that food and beverage establishments move to take-out (among other things). And because it’s Singapore, there are penalties for citizens who fail to comply with physical distancing:
From 12 April 2020, written warnings will no longer be issued to those who do not comply with elevated safe distancing measures. Members of the public, particularly the elderly who are more vulnerable, should stay at home unless you have good reason. Any member of public found in breach of measures, including failure or refusal to comply with directions from an Enforcement Officer, will be asked for his/her particulars. First time offenders face a composition fine of $300. Repeat offenders will face higher fines, or prosecution in court for egregious cases.
⓷ Politics, economics and COVID-19
It seems like news organizations are spending a lot of time looking back at what didn’t happen after early January or 21 January (our first case). Or what was said or wasn’t said. Dr. Anthony Fauci said this on CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday:
We make a recommendation. Often the recommendation is taken. Sometimes it's not. But it is what it is. We are where we are right now.
This animation illustrates the period of inaction by comparing early testing and containment (South Korea) with extremely limited testing and thus almost zero containment. When I first built this, I used only New York and Washington. In some ways that makes it even more clear that we did nothing.
Note: New York’s population is less than half of that of South Korea.
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. Total tested (US, Johns Hopkins): 2,816,674
🌎 12 April
Globally: 1 696 588 confirmed (85 679 - new) with 105 952 deaths (6262 - new)
The Americas: 573 940 confirmed (37 276- new) with 21 531 deaths (2237- new)
Johns Hopkins interactive dashboard (11.00 pm Pacific)
Global confirmed: 1,850,807 (1,777,666)
Total deaths: 114,251 (108,867)
🇺🇸 12 April
CDC: 525,704 (492,416) cases and 20,486 (18,559) deaths
Johns Hopkins*: 557,571 (529,951) cases and 22,108 (20,608) deaths
State data*: 553,602 (525,497) identified cases and 21,984 (20,494) deaths
View infographic and data online: total cases, cases/100,000 and deaths/million.
* Johns Hopkins data, 11 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