Day 42 of a lockdown that started March 17th in Boston.
Globally the number of confirmed cases of the virus will pass the three-million mark today. There are a steady 80,000 new cases a day. This is down from a peak of about 85,000 new cases per day last week. This is most likely due to the lockdowns in western countries and the disease moving into parts of the world where testing resources are unavailable or too expensive like Africa, India, and South America.
There have been 208,000 recorded deaths from COVID-19. The virus is killing people at a rate of 5,500 people per day. This is down from a peak a weak ago at about 7,000 per day.
In the United States there are about 25,000 new cases every day for a cumulative total of 970,000. Deaths have been fluctuating for two weeks around 2,000 per day. 56,000 people have died in the United States from COVID-19.
Overall in the United States 3 people out of 1000 have been confirmed infected with less than 2% of the population tested so far.
Massachusetts continues to have the fourth highest infection rate for a state in the country. 7.7 people out of 1000 are infected. 4 out of 10,000 have died.
In New York City 18.3 people out of 1000 has been confirmed infected and 2 out of 1000 has died from the virus. Yet there have been ostensibly random antibody tests that suggest up to 20% of the population of the city has been infected. There is some caution and skepticism about the methodology and accuracy of that testing, however, it is consistent with limited random antibody testing done in other parts of the country.
If it is accurate, it suggests that 90 percent of cases are never tested and show few if any symptoms or never seek medical care.
This leads to further speculation that the death rate for the virus is much lower than originally thought but still greater than a regular seasonal flu.
This article has a lot of seemingly good news:
Cuomo Announces Phased Plan to Reopen New York; Deaths Drop
Sunday, Apr 26th, 2020
SNL back again with virtual episode NBC’s Saturday Night Live returned for its second virtual, produced-from-home episode during the coronavirus pandemic Saturday evening. Academy Award winning actor Brad Pitt kicked things off, appearing as Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, during the episode’s cold open. Pitt’s exasperated Fauci warned people not to consume disinfectants in light of recent comments by President Trump, and admitted he was likely getting fired because Trump said he wasn’t. Eventually, Pitt broke the fourth wall, removed his wig, and thanked Fauci for his leadership during the pandemic. Source: Saturday Night Live
Global coronavirus deaths surpass 200,000 The global death toll from the COVID-19 coronavirus surpassed 200,000 on Saturday, with the total number of infections now beyond 2.9 million. In the United States, there are now more than 900,000 cases and 50,000 deaths. Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House’s coronavirus response coordinator, said Saturday night that she expects the rate of those hospitalized and dying from the disease in the United States will fall “dramatically” by the end of May, though she also said that won’t necessarily mean the number of cases will simultaneously dwindle, since increased testing could pick up many asymptomatic or mild cases. Source: The Washington Post
White House considering replacing Azar White House officials are discussing a plan to replace Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, though they’re reluctant to complete any major shakeups within the Trump administration during the coronavirus pandemic, Politico and The Wall Street Journal report. Still, criticism of Azar’s role has reportedly mounted in recent weeks, especially after Director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority Rick Bright was moved to a National Institutes of Health position, a transfer which Bright described as a form of retaliation. President Trump had reportedly expressed frustration with Azar even before the pandemic and ultimately replaced him as the coronavirus task force leader with Vice President Mike Pence. Source: Politico
Trump says coronavirus briefings ‘not worth the time and effort’ President Trump tweeted Saturday evening that holding White House press briefings to address the coronavirus pandemic were no longer “worth the time and effort” because the media asks “nothing but hostile questions” and then “refuses to report the truth.” The tweet comes after Friday’s briefing, which was the shortest since Trump began holding them in March. There was no briefing Saturday, and Sunday’s White House schedule did not list any public events for the president. The decision to scale back the briefings is likely related to backlash to Trump’s comments on Thursday, when he pondered whether doctors should look into injecting harmful disinfectants into COVID-19 patients. Source: The Guardian
King Salman issues an order to partially lift the curfew in all regions of the country except for Mecca where a 24-hour curfew continues as the authorities report 16,299 infections and 136 deaths nationwide. (Al Jazeera)
artificial stupid 