Morning statistics – Personal under-estimates of speed and magnitude of virus – Spain – More states with stay-at-home orders – Fairfax County – Hospital care for people with issues other than COVID-19 – Evening statistics
Today’s statistics as of 10:30 AM — # of cases worldwide: 1,139,207; # of deaths worldwide: 60,874; # of cases U.S.: 278,537; # of deaths U.S.: 7,193. In the course of 24 hours the number of cases has increased by more than 100,000 and the number of deaths by more than 5,000. More than 1,000 of these additional deaths are in the U.S. alone.
I suppose during every epidemic there are people who at first can’t believe what is happening and attempt to downplay its effects. I plead guilty to that myself. I didn’t write the matter off as a hoax, as certain somewhat more highly placed persons were known to do – our own President among them – but I certainly did not anticipate the scale it would acquire, nor the speed with which it would increase. When LE persuaded the Capital Hiking Club to suspend the club hikes and the board agreed, I privately thought her apprehensions a bit overblown. That was on March 14th – less than three weeks ago. Now I see that, if anything, she was showing a great deal of restraint in her predictions. Influenza carries off, in very rough figures, about 55,000 people in the course of a year in this country. The death count from the coronavirus has now surpassed 7,000, and this is only the beginning.
It is said that Spain is approaching its peak. Today there were 809 deaths – which sounds like an enormous number to me, but apparently it is the lowest Spain has had for a week.
Alabama, Missouri, and Oklahoma have stay-at-home orders in effect. The only states without them now are South Carolina, Utah, Wyoming, Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota. It is true that these states currently have a low incidence of cases and fatalities. But that may change.
Some encouraging news, on a local level at least: the number of cases in Fairfax County has risen by only 15, the lowest increase for the week.
RK is feeling better, but her experience throws an interesting light on our hospital situation. She has to undergo treatment for follow-up of the removal of certain cancer cells and the hospital has warned her that patients may have to wait in their cars until their names are called; they do not want to risk having several people sitting together in a waiting room. Treatments for illnesses outside of the virus have been greatly complicated by the epidemic.
Today’s statistics as of 9:45 PM — # of cases worldwide: 1,201,591; # of deaths worldwide: 64,703; # of cases U.S.: 311,301; # of deaths U.S.: 8,476. In a little over a week the number of cases in the U.S. has trebled.