Morris, Max
From: Sent: To:
Morris, Max Thursday, October 15, 2020 11:47 PM Morris, Max
Subject:
10/15/2020 Coronavirus Daily Update
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Live the message, share the message: Be safe – Stay home and limit travel as much as possible, self-quarantine if you or any members of your family are or may be sick, if you go out wear your mask – the right way, ensure safe social distancing, and practice good hygiene – wash your hands, avoid touching your face, and sanitize used items and surfaces.
Happy Thursday night Everyone! Well if I wait much longer we can say it’s Friday. Sorry for the late send but hope you All had a great day. The weekend is almost here. Following is the Daily Update with Highlights, the “Good Stuff”, Expanded Stories, statistics, trends and items of interest related to the novel coronavirus pandemic. For tonight, I leave
you with a little inspirational humor from @dog_feelings: the human has been working from home the last couple days. and every so often. they let me participate in the video calls. all the other humans cheer when they see me. i am the only thing holding their company together. Well, it has been way more than a couple of days of working from
home. But we can all understand the feeling of endless video calls. And if one of our “family members” with a cold nose and a waging tail joins in, it does liven the call up doesn’t it? So, let thinks like our four-legged friend. Dogs are pretty much always happy. And no matter if you have been gone 5 days or 5 minutes, they have the same enthusiastic reaction to you returning home. Or even back in the room for your next Zoom meeting after you got another cup of coffee. We can learn something here. If you work on acting happy, it’s funny how you just might start to feel happy. A smile might even start to creep across your face. The lines in your forehead might ease up. The worry might leave you for at least a few minutes. And it will come across to the people you hold dear to you and that you work with. And just like our pups, you will be the one making a difference on the video calls or in your home. So, I’ve got a Scooby snack if you show us that smile. Well, not really a dog treat but you know what I mean. Go have at it tomorrow and report back to me on your success – and how many people you helped get in a better mood. All because of you ꢃ.
ꢀ
CVOB Website US State, US County, Global Trending Charts and Data as well as our Communications Archive
can be found at https://www.sunknighty.net/.
Highlights
The US and its territories now have over 3,155,000 people who have recovered, more than 7,966,000 confirmed infections and 217,000 deaths, with Texas, Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin, Florida, California, North Carolina, Minnesota, Kentucky and Michigan reporting the top 10 most new daily infections. At least 26,748,000 people have now recovered worldwide, with more than 38,750,000 infections and 1,095,000 deaths reported in more than 188 countries and regions, with the US, Brazil, India, Mexico, Argentina, Russia, Iran, Colombia, Spain and the United Kingdom recording the top 10 highest number of new cases in the last 24 hours. Vaccine maker Moderna announced today it could possibly finish enrolling the company’s 30,000-person study next week and could have its first data analysis next month, a projection that is yet another indication that a vaccine will not be on the market by Election Day as some US officials had hoped.
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The US topped 62,000 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, the country’s highest daily count since it reported more than 66,000 cases on July 31. The national positivity rate for COVID-19 tests across the US has jumped from 4.7% to 6% in week-to-week comparisons, according to an internal memo from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services obtained Wednesday night.
Cases in the Midwest began to surge during October, and on Thursday, Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, North Dakota, and Montana all tallied new single-day highs for positive test results. As of today, six US states experienced a declining trend in current hospitalizations, while eight states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico reported flat trends, while twelve states saw a declining trend in new deaths, and 24 states, along with Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, reported flat rates.
An ensemble forecast published Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now projects there will be 229,000 to 240,000 coronavirus deaths in the US by November 7, updated from the October 8 projection of up to 233,0000 by October 30. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, reacted Thursday to the idea of focused protection - put forward in the Great Barrington Declaration - saying the idea is nonsense, and the idea of letting the virus go without any protection measures is “ridiculous.” Dr. Peter Hotez, a vaccine scientist and dean of tropical medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, says he is “very worried” as coronavirus cases continue to rise in the US, adding “this is a very ominous sign” and while the US will very likely be in a much better situation by this time next year, “it’s a matter of getting through these next few months.”
Coronavirus precautions will result in a very different kind of Thanksgiving for many people this year, himself included, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Wednesday, explaining that “You may have to bite the bullet and sacrifice that social gathering, unless you're pretty certain that the people that you're dealing with are not infected.” Coronavirus infections in Europe set records this week, overtaking the number of cases in the US per capita, and a top World Health Organization official warned Thursday that death rates on the continent in the winter could be five times more than previous highs if people are not strict about masks and social distancing. The World Health Organization's Maria Van Kerkhove addressed the surge in cases in Europe today, saying that about 80% of countries across the regions are seeing a growth right now, and advocated for unity in fighting the virus and for people to adhere to guidelines in hotspot areas. A return to the full-scale lockdowns seen earlier in the year in Europe should only be a last resort if restrictive measures don’t work to curb the second wave of coronavirus cases, Dr. Hans Kluge, the World Health Organization’s regional director for Europe said Thursday, explaining that “A proportional and targeted response is the way forward.”
French Prime Minister Jean Castex announced Thursday a curfew will take effect in the Paris region and nine cities across the country from 9PM to 6AM starting this Saturday, with a 12,000 police force enforcing the curfew and people breaking the curfew will be fined and jailed after multiple offenses. London will be moved from medium coronavirus alert level Tier 1 to high coronavirus alert level Tier 2, the United Kingdom’s Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced Thursday, urging residents to support government efforts to suppress the spread of the virus. Researchers in Ottawa tracking the spread of the coronavirus through wastewater say they have found alarmingly high levels of the pathogen in recent samples, contradicting plateauing case counts registered by the city’s testing system, with the latest data showing the presence of three to six times more of the virus than on October 6. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said today his country is committed to keeping the border closed until the US gets control of COVID-19, with the closure agreement set to expire on October 21 expected to be extended. Hundreds of thousands of American workers filed for unemployment benefits for another week accordingly to new
numbers released Friday. [See Extended Stories following for detail]
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Thursday he plans to put a roughly $500 billion proposal on the floor next week - approximately a quarter of what Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin are currently talking about on the topline.
After an ambitious expansion of the safety net in the spring saved millions of people in the US from poverty, the aid is now largely exhausted and poverty has returned to levels higher than before the coronavirus crisis, two new
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studies have found, with the number of poor people growing by eight million since May, according to researchers at Columbia University,
The risk of exposure to the coronavirus on flights is very low, a US Department of Defense study released on Thursday found, a positive sign for the airline industry as it tries to rebound from the pandemic’s crushing effect on travel. Two surveys released this week found that many travelers are expressing hesitation about taking a trip, with some 67% of those responding to an AAA Travel survey released Thursday say they are uncertain about whether to take a vacation, and online travel booking site Travelocity finding that 57% of Americans say they won't travel for the yearend holidays this year.
The Good Stuff: For voters worried about their next meal, taking the time to stand in line for hours is a nearly impossible ask. While many Americans are opting to mail in or drop off their ballots this year, election officials are also expecting high turnout in person - and accompanying long lines. Lengthy wait times were already a problem on Super Tuesday, during the primary season; and this summer, some voters were stuck waiting in unrelenting heat. Enter Feed the Polls, a new initiative that aims to give voters free, nutritious meals at polling places on Election Day. Focusing on poorer, food-insecure communities, the group hopes to distribute 50,000 meals on November 3. The effort, which is a partnership between Zagat and The Infatuation and the nonprofit organization The Migrant Kitchen, does not align with a political party. "Hunger is nonpartisan. We just want to feed people," Chris Stang, co-founder and CEO of Zagat and the Infatuation, said. "We are certainly not trying to tell anyone how to vote -- we just want them to vote." After coming up with the idea, Stang reached out to Nasser Jaber, founder of the Migrant Kitchen, which has delivered food to front-line workers and food-insecure communities across New York City amid the coronavirus pandemic. For Jaber, who grew up in Palestinian refugee camps, the issue of food insecurity is extremely personal. "It's important to me to feed anyone that is hungry," he said. Jaber explained that the pandemic has both exacerbated the food insecurity crisis in the US and made voting more difficult. For these reasons, he said, Feed the Polls' meals are centered on health and nutrition. "We're not trying to give people bologna sandwiches," he explained. "We give restaurant-quality food. Food with respect." Feed the Polls is not alone in its quest to encourage voting in nontraditional (and delicious) ways. Pizza to the Polls, another nonpartisan organization, has sent thousands of pizzas to voters waiting in long lines. This week, the group announced a partnership with Uber Eats to send a fleet of 140 food trucks across the US to serve poll workers and voters. In just under a week, Stang said, Feed the Polls has raised more than $14,000 entirely from individual donations through The Infatuation and Zagat's networks, as well as raising awareness online. "The most encouraging thing is seeing this grassroots fundraising," Stang said. "We want to put some good out into the world whenever possible."
Extended Stories
US jobless claims: Americans filed another 898,000 first-time jobless claims last week on a seasonally-adjusted basis, according to the Department of Labor. That's up 53,000 from the prior week. Weekly claims have fallen a long way since peaking at 6.9 million in late March. But the improvements have slowed to a snail's pace in recent weeks, and went into reverse last week. That means it could take a long time to get back to the pre-pandemic level of around 200,000 claims per week. On top of regular jobless claims, 372,891 Americans filed for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, a program designed in response to the pandemic to help those not usually eligible for unemployment benefits. That was down 91,000 claims from the prior week. Adding those together, total first-time claims stood at about 1.3 million last week. Continued jobless claims, which count workers who have filed for benefits for more than two weeks in a row, stood at 10 million. That's down around 1.2 million from the prior week. That sounds like good news, but economists worry continued claims might be declining because people have maxed out their benefit allowance. States provide up to 26 weeks of aid before workers move on to other government programs, such as the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation program.
Filtration systems: Evidence has been mounting for months that the coronavirus can spread by air, but effective and high-quality air filtration as well as proper ventilation can reduce the risk of spread, airborne pathogen specialists say. It’s no silver bullet, but as the weather turns colder and people spend more time indoors, it’s another layer of a multi-pronged defense against the virus and what one expert call more popular that “toilet paper in April.” Jeff Siegel, a professor of civil engineering at the University of Toronto and a specialist in indoor air quality, ventilation and filtration, said people have been overlooking air quality and HVAC systems for a long time “and now we’re paying a price for that.” “You might be talking about a 100-year-old school, you might be talking about a
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postwar apartment building, you might be talking about a brand-new condominium or office building,” he said. “We’ve got to get fresh air into those spaces and when you can’t get fresh air, you have to do other things, maybe portable filtration, maybe limiting how that space is used.” He said that “everyone should be prepared” for when someone in their household gets infected, adding that one of the best ways to do so is to buy a portable HEPA filter.
Work from home surveys: Contrary to reports of employee burnout from the stress of working from home during the coronavirus pandemic, most people now say they're not so keen on returning to the office. And it's not because they're afraid of catching COVID-19. According to a recent survey by consulting firm Korn Ferry, 74% of respondents are confident that their coworkers would follow safety guidelines, such as wearing masks and social distancing. Still, more than half expressed ambivalence about returning to their workplaces once they reopen. The main reason cited by respondents for wanting to continue working from home: They get more work done. The majority of respondents, 58%, said they were more productive when working remotely, even with the distraction of kids and spouses. Employers are getting the message, too. Although many businesses continue to see benefits in gathering employees under the same roof, views are shifting. The go-go corporate ethos that once led people to work around the clock to demonstrate their worth now seems out of touch, a relic of a time when employees were expected to put career over their personal lives. Today, top companies increasingly recognize that the new norm likely means a hybrid approach of working from home and the office, or even a fully virtual work environment. Only 14% of employers say they plan to make returning to the office mandatory, according to Korn Ferry. Other data also reveal a sea-change in attitudes on working from home since the pandemic. Nearly 9 of 10 workers say they want more flexibility and autonomy over where and when they work, according to new research from technology company Cisco Systems. Cisco Vice President Gordon Thomson told Reuters that companies must reconfigure how they operate to help meet the new demands of workers, prioritizing effective communication and collaboration. While working from home can help employees lead more balanced lives, some workers may benefit more than others. While 70% of male workers said their productivity had increased since the start of the pandemic, only 41% of women said the same, according to a study from Qualtrics, a maker of experience management software, and theBoardlist, which helps companies find corporate directors. Nearly twice as many men as women — 57% compared to 29% — said that working from home had a positive impact on their careers. Meanwhile, Zoom calls and other online connections can't replace the social dynamics of being in the same room with people. Offices that foster positive work relationships may have the greatest chances of luring employees back, as 57% of professionals surveyed pointed to "camaraderie with colleagues" as what they would most look forward to if their office were to reopen, according to Qualtrics and theBoardlist.
Outbreak Statistics
Numbers from John Hopkins CSSE Tracking are pulled daily at 5:00PM and changes reflect the past 24 hours
Global Numbers
- Date
- Cases
- Deaths
- Recovered
15 Oct Thu
14 Oct Wed 13 Oct Tue 12 Oct Mon 11 Oct Sun 10 Oct Sat
9 Oct Fri
38,750,144 (+405,948)
38,344,196 (+359,617) 37,984,579 (+290,611) 37,693,968 (+346,866) 37,347,102 (+300,512) 37,046,590 (+335,537) 36,711,053 (+357,290)
1,095,091 (+6,112) - 2.83%
1,088,979 (+5,763) - 2.84% 1,083,216 (+4,355) - 2.85% 1,078,861 (+4,129) - 2.86% 1,074,732 (+4,457) - 2.88% 1,070,275 (+5,804) - 2.89% 1,064,471 (+5,707) - 2.9%
26,748,527 (+210,706)
26,537,821 (+198,748) 26,339,073 (+208,552) 26,130,521 (+184,695) 25,945,826 (+230,834) 25,714,992 (+203,574) 25,511,418 (+215,875)
Top 15 Global Country Counts
Daily case change (total): US: +70,876 (7,966,634), India: +67,708 (7,307,097), France: +30,980 (850,997), Brazil: +27,235 (5,140,863), United Kingdom: +19,000 (676,455), Argentina: +14,932 (931,967), Russia: +13,556 (1,346,380), Spain: +13,318 (921,374), Czechia: +9,424 (144,849), Italy: +8,803 (381,602), Belgium: +8,271 (181,511), Poland: +8,099 (149,903), Netherlands: +7,885 (209,791), Germany: +7,086 (348,781), Colombia: +6,061 (930,159) Daily death change (total): US: +1,132 (217,601), Brazil: +749 (151,747), India: +680 (111,266), Mexico: +478 (84,898), Argentina: +349 (24,921), Russia: +281 (23,350), Iran: +256 (29,605), Colombia: +165 (28,306), Spain: +140
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(33,553), United Kingdom: +138 (43,383), South Africa: +123 (18,151), Indonesia: +112 (12,268), Peru: +93 (33,512), Poland: +91 (3,308), France: +90 (33,146)
US Numbers
- Date
- Cases
- Deaths
- Recovered
15 Oct Thu
14 Oct Wed 13 Oct Tue 12 Oct Mon 11 Oct Sun 10 Oct Sat
9 Oct Fri
7,966,482 (+70,876)
7,895,606 (+59,078) 7,836,528 (+40,155) 7,796,373 (+40,998) 7,755,375 (+52,744) 7,702,631 (+54,527) 7,648,104 (+58,903)
217,598 (+1,132) - 2.73%
216,466 (+920) - 2.74% 215,546 (+527) - 2.75% 215,019 (+287) - 2.76% 214,732 (+564) - 2.77% 214,168 (+781) - 2.78% 213,387 (+924) - 2.79%
3,155,826 (+31,233)
3,124,593 (+17,824) 3,106,769 (+31,692) 3,075,077 (+12,094) 3,062,983 (+23,894) 3,039,089 (+17,837) 3,021,252 (+21,357)
US State and Territory Counts
Cases by daily change (totals): Texas: +5,206 (833,616), Missouri: +4,435 (150,794), Illinois: +4,012 (334,651), Wisconsin: +3,747 (162,325), Florida: +3,356 (744,988), California: +2,886 (866,311), North Carolina: +2,532 (238,939), Minnesota: +2,532 (117,106), Kentucky: +2,504 (84,195), Michigan: +2,458 (156,913), Arkansas: +2,357 (96,524), Tennessee: +2,289 (222,827), Ohio: +2,178 (175,843), Indiana: +1,943 (141,212), Pennsylvania: +1,551 (182,486), Iowa: +1,526 (103,632), Utah: +1,498 (90,461), New York: +1,460 (479,400), Georgia: +1,393 (336,241), Mississippi: +1,322 (108,139), Virginia: +1,302 (162,538), South Carolina: +1,297 (161,106), Oklahoma: +1,221 (103,836), Alabama: +1,185 (169,162), Massachusetts: +1,167 (141,579), Arizona: +1,113 (228,748), New Jersey: +971 (216,994), Nebraska: +924 (54,467), South Dakota: +797 (31,012), Oregon: +745 (38,525), Louisiana: +743 (173,864), Washington: +734 (95,509), Montana: +723 (20,933), North Dakota: +706 (29,653), Colorado: +692 (80,753), Kansas: +674 (68,050), Nevada: +655 (87,969), Idaho: +645 (49,892), Maryland: +630 (133,548), New Mexico: +577 (34,290), Puerto Rico: +569 (56,085), Rhode Island: +274 (27,438), West Virginia: +261 (19,084), Wyoming: +213 (8,177), Connecticut: +167 (62,028), Guam: +161 (3,427), Alaska: +152 (10,322), Hawaii: +99 (13,674), District of Columbia: +98 (16,166), Delaware: +95 (22,560), New Hampshire: +70 (9,349), Maine: +18 (5,834), Vermont: +14 (1,903), Northern Mariana Islands: +0 (77), American Samoa: +0 (0), Virgin Islands: -1 (1,327) Deaths by daily change (totals): Florida: +141 (15,736), Missouri: +120 (2,544), Texas: +112 (17,195), California: +96 (16,796), Illinois: +52 (9,373), Alabama: +50 (2,756), Minnesota: +48 (2,252), Massachusetts: +42 (9,672), Tennessee: +36 (2,864), Michigan: +34 (7,302), Arkansas: +34 (1,645), Indiana: +28 (3,864), Kentucky: +27 (1,296), Georgia: +22 (7,492), Pennsylvania: +22 (8,413), New York: +21 (33,337), Louisiana: +19 (5,707), North Carolina: +18 (3,874), Arizona: +17 (5,789), Wisconsin: +17 (1,553), Kansas: +16 (818), South Carolina: +14 (3,607), South Dakota: +13 (304), Mississippi: +12 (3,152), Oklahoma: +11 (1,143), Iowa: +10 (1,506), Washington: +10 (2,221), Hawaii: +10 (183), Virginia: +7 (3,385), Nevada: +7 (1,698), Colorado: +7 (2,160), New Jersey: +6 (16,197), Maryland: +6 (4,028), Oregon: +6 (611), Ohio: +5 (5,038), North Dakota: +5 (370), Montana: +5 (230), Idaho: +4 (516), Connecticut: +3 (4,540), Nebraska: +3 (530), New Mexico: +3 (921), Utah: +2 (529), Rhode Island: +2 (1,149), West Virginia: +2 (395), New Hampshire: +2 (458), Puerto Rico: +1 (743), Delaware: +1 (661), District of Columbia: +1 (638), Alaska: +1 (65), Maine: +1 (144), Wyoming: +0 (57), Guam: +0 (61), Vermont: +0 (58), Virgin Islands: +0 (20), Northern Mariana Islands: +0 (2), American Samoa: +0 (0)
