There are now more than 3.5 million confirmed cases of the corona virus in the world (1,158,000 of those are here). There have been more than 247,000 deaths.
The death toll here in the USA has passed 67,000 and is closing in on 68,000. The president has raised the expected death toll to be around 70,000 (Uh, hello? We are almost there now!), perhaps even as many as 100,000. There have only been just over 7 million tests done throughout the country. Despite that, the president remains confident that re-opening the country is a good thing.
Georgia has close to 29,000 cases and has had more than 1,100 deaths. Just yesterday, 330 new cases were confirmed.
Michigan, where protests over the stay-at-home orders continue, has the highest percentage of deaths in the nation, 9.1% of all COVID 19 end in death. Dr. Deborah Brix, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, found the protests very disturbing.
Illinois took on another 3,000 cases (now standing at 60,000).
400 cases were diagnosed in a Missouri pork processing plant.
Florida has more than 35,000 cases and has had more than 1,300 deaths. The state's medical examiner begged officials to close the beaches. Even though Florida was not hit nearly as bad as it was expected to be hit, the virus is still spreading there. Even so, the governor is about to claim victory for his state.
Texas is re-opening---and residents are scared. The state reported 1,293 cases on Saturday. Dallas is starting to get hit. It had it's biggest day of confirmed infections with 234 cases, bringing it's total up to more than 4,100. Houston had 115 new cases.
Massachusetts has more than 8,000 cases and has had more than 4,000 fatalities. My friend Art in Boston sent me a link to an article about a WalMart store having to close down after 81 workers there became infected.
"I'm pretty sure this is the third Walmart shut down," he said. "I'm apprehensive about going to my nearby Walmart store."
California's death rate had a spike on Friday with an additional 98 fatalities. In the Central Valley, where I live, we now have 1,740 cases and have had 54 deaths. Two Ruiz Foods plants in Tulare and Dinuba, California have had 77 workers test positive for the virus.
The FDA warns that the virus could keep spreading all summer. The Wharton model shows about 233,000 deaths if states keep re-opening. Warmer weather and spring fever are driving more people from their homes, increasing worries about infection.
As the body count continues, this article takes a shocking look at how New York City has been dealing with the increased number of dead bodies.
France is now quarantining all visitors for 14 days, according to this report on Fox News.
The CEO of Gilead, the maker of Remdesivir, the drug which has shown promise in treating the virus, says it will be available to COVID 19 patients next week. The company has donated their entire supply. Amazing. However, it is up to the Federal Government to decide where the drug is shipped. (Let's see how that gets screwed up...)
What would happen if no vaccine is ever found for the coronavirus? That was the subject of an interesting article on CNN.
In the wake of former President Bush's call to keep the fight against this virus non-partisan, President Trump had rude things to say about the former Republican president. Meanwhile, the White House is pushing its diversionary story that China covered up about the virus and did not let the world know how devastating it was. And this is on top of a report that the president wants to remove the inspector general from the Department of Health and Human Services because her report in March showed how woefully prepared hospitals were for this pandemic.
Arguably, the hardest hit state in this crisis has been New York. Governor Andrew Cuomo has been a great leader during this time (far more than our supposed president could ever be). Several New York state residents got together and created a music video parody dedicated to the governor.
I heard from Rosa in London.
"In London things are okay," she said. "I went to the shops yesterday and I was very impressed. Shops now have a new system in place whereby people have to queue outside - it takes around 10 to 15 minutes. What they do is ask a large crowd to wait outside while the shelves are stocked up. So when we are in, at least we can buy what we need. I hope this is now the beginning of the end. We are all tired and fed up."
My friends Cathy and Travis in San Francisco sent me a note. They are obviously making the most of their down time during this crisis.
"Travis and I went to the Farmers Market this morning," she said. "we are now sitting on a bench watching seagulls and the sailing boats. It's actually pretty windy.
"Yesterday our goal was to walk down Union Street and get gelato ice cream. We didn't leave until 3:00 pm. I was still in jammies. Loving it!
"We talked to Erich on Friday. It was so nice. He loves his leisure days. I'm enjoying mine for now.
I was up at 6:00 am doing housework. I was up at 5:00 am yesterday morning doing housework. Our goal is to paint the bathroom this coming week. Travis is very excited about it....not! Little by little getting rid of projects. Yeah!"
I had another quick note from Kim, my CNA friend in Wisconsin. She has been in isolation since taking care of a patient the hospital thought might be positive for the coronavirus.
"I got good news," she said. "Work contacted me and the patient tested negative. I am super relieved! I was so nervous. But... I am sure it will happen again.
"Pulaski, which is by Brown County, has an assisted living that has some cases of the virus. It keeps getting closer. It is so devastating when a nursing home or assisted living get it, because it goes through the whole building. Praying that it stays away from our town.
"I am back to work. Now to keep myself healthy. I have to stay well to get back to Hawaii. It does look like it could be two years. That's more time for me to save."
Shirley had a nice, relaxing Sunday. I caught her snoozing in the shade at one point.
I had pre-ordered groceries again. This time the whole thing went off without a hitch (except they did not have my allergy pills in stock. Argh!). I just popped my rear door open, the grocery clerk threw the food in and that was that.
Later in the day, I had my Zoom appointment with Ashley and Sai in Oakland. Ricki (in Oregon) and Erich (in San Leandro) joined in. Sai had to do a bit of work at the beginning (he was on call), but joined us later on. We were gabbing for nearly 2 hours. Shirley even popped on briefly to say hello.
This morning, I need to get a blood draw done for some lab tests. After that...who knows?
I have been thinking about limiting the number of times I write my "diary", as it is taking up the bulk of my days---and I need a break. I'm thinking of doing them now on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays (unless something really interesting occurs in between. Zoom calls and trips to the grocery store are not that exciting. Ha!). I will be back tomorrow (Tuesday) to tell you about the trip to get my blood sucked out (snore...). I will be back Wednesday, as planned. After that, though...unless something out of the ordinary happens, I'll skip Thursday (my first "day off" since this all began...).
May the Fourth be you.
Stay SAFE. Stay SHELTERED. Stay ALIVE.
CHEERS!
Continue to the next part HERE.
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Thanks for visiting. CHEERS!