As the confirmed number of cases closes in at 3 million worldwide, the USA is still leading the pack with more cases than any other country in the world with 1 million cases and 55,000 deaths. We are No. 1. I wonder if the president is proud?
Washington state had an additional 202 cases and 11 deaths yesterday. Utah reported its deadliest week yet and has now surpassed 4,000 cases. Pennsylvania has more than 41,000 cases. Maryland had 815 new cases and 30 deaths yesterday. Michigan has more than 37,000 cases and has had 3,200 deaths. Santa Clarita in California also saw a large bump in cases Florida had 689 new cases (31,500 total) on Sunday and 19 deaths (1,074 total) and the state says it is starting to see the numbers drop.
The governors of several states (Georgia, Tennessee, Texas, South Carolina, Mississippi, etc.) are slowly reopening despite great caution from scientists and local officials. South Carolina is one of those states opening and they just had 237 new cases and eight more deaths. Williamson County in Texas has seen a 78% increase in cases recently. Georgia, the state that re-opened first, currently has 23,481 cases and has had 916 deaths.
This was seen on Twitter yesterday. It's awesome:
Some beaches in Southern California were open, despite the governor's shelter in place order still being in effect.
A Louisiana pastor, who was already under house arrest for holding church services against quarantine orders, held services again yesterday.
France, Italy and Spain are preparing to ease lockdown restrictions. Italy is finally seeing light at the end of a very dark tunnel. It will begin lifting restrictions in early May. For the first time in 6 weeks, children in Spain were let out to play.
New Zealand is claiming to be virus free (for now) and is starting to ease restrictions as well.
Pepcid is being trialed as a possible drug to hinder the affects of COVID19. Bill Gates is funding seven different possible vaccines that look promising but are still a year away from being ready. In the UK, the first human trials of a vaccine developed at Oxford are underway.
Maryland's governor lambasted the president for his constant dis-information spewing at the daily coronavirus briefings. Science (or the lack of it) could be a dividing line in the November elections. Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, called the president's pulling funding from the World Health Organization "stupid" and "dangerous".
Several businesses associated with Trump or worth more than $100 million got small business loans.
Forbes reports that during this pandemic, sex toy sales are on the rise. Oh my stars!
Workers at an Amazon warehouse in Minnesota walked off the job over virus safety concerns. A WalMart in Massachusetts was closed for cleaning due to a high volume of virus cases in the area.
Another meat packing plant may be shutting down. Workers in a Hanford, CA plant test positive for the virus.
My friend Scott Nicholson in North Carolina posted on Twitter about his recent trip to the grocery store:
"Disheartening trip to grocery store," he wrote. "Many people not wearing masks, not obeying one-way aisles, hard to maintain six feet, people fondling merchandise. We are terrible at cooperation."
My friend Mikey in Iowa also wrote to tell me about his recent trip to the store.
"It was time to venture to Walmart to get groceries again," he said. "All the employees there were wearing masks. If you needed to use cash, you had to use the registers up front. I had to buy a car battery and the cashier back in automotive asked how I was paying. He said if it was cash, he would have asked me to go up front to do the transaction.
"Nobody seems to think about the keypad one has to use to punch in their PIN if it is a debit card. A lot of people touch that keypad. The same thing goes for the pharmacy. You have to sign the keypad thingy to get your prescription if it is covered by insurance. It makes me a bit nervous to use those keypads.
"We used the self-check for the groceries. When we were checking out, there was this individual next to us, checking out her purchases. All of a sudden, she coughs! No attempt to turn her head away; no attempt to cover her mouth. I'm amazed at how many grown people fail to do such a small thing. I learned to turn my head away, or cover my mouth when I cough at an early age. I realize sometimes you get the sudden urge to cough and there's no warning, but a person should at least attempt to turn their head or attempt to cover their mouth.
"The last few times I got the flu, a customer looked me right in the eye, and coughed right in my face. Each of those times, I ended up getting sick by the end of the day. The last time it was influenza B. A little courtesy would have prevented me from getting it. These were grown adults."
My friend Kim, the CNA in Wisconsin, also sent me a note on Sunday.
"I am still staying well," she says. "The cases in Wisconsin are up to 5,600. We have had a couple more cases in my county. No cases yet at the hospital. We have had a couple rule outs. They were negative. We have been lucky.
"Going shopping is the scary thing. People everywhere. I always wear a mask grocery shopping. I still have a lot of living to do. People are at least wearing masks when they go out. I am very happy to see that.
"I had yesterday off. My grandma passed away at 3 in the afternoon. She died very peacefully and now is with Grandpa. I did have a feeling it was going to be this weekend.
"I think seeing Dad go through losing his mother made it hard for me. He is not used to seeing people pass away and what happens.
"I'm not sure what the plans are for the funeral. I did hear that we will be allowed to have 12 people there. She really wanted a big funeral, but that won't be happening. She will get her military honors though. She was a mechanic in the Air Force when there were not a lot of women. She was a very interesting woman."
Shirley must be part monkey. For the last several days when I've gone out to look for her, she's been up inside of bushes, climbing around and usually stuck. Yesterday was no exception. When I spotted her, she was stuck in an almost upright position.
This morning I have to venture out into the world again. I have to pick up a prescription, but I also have a doctor appointment. I am going to my cardiologist's office. My blood pressure had been crazy elevated again (I think it was the stress about the fence) for a while and I've noticed that my ankles and feet have been swelling far more than usual. I have been wearing my compression socks --which I normally only wear for work--all day because they have gotten so bad, especially my right foot. You can see how much bigger the right one is from the left. Scary.
I know that swollen ankles and feet are signs of heart failure. My doctor told me that himself not too long ago. So, I'm freaked, of course. I'm hoping it's just a simple medication fix. Perhaps I am taking too much of something or not enough of something else.
But between my muscle weakness issues, blood pressure and cardiac stuff, I am a mess. I just don't know what to think... Clearly the best years are behind me, though.
Stay SAFE. Stay SHELTERED. Stay ALIVE.
CHEERS!
Continue to the next part HERE.
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