Thursday, March 26, 2:28pm EDT
It’s been just a little over two days since my most recent post, and I can safely say this coronavirus situation continues to worsen, and that some of our politicians in the US are even crazier than I realized. Yesterday we were to be seated in VIP for the Billie Eilish show in Indianapolis, but unfortunately such was postponed due to the pandemic. By postponing the show, instead of cancelling, Ticketmaster is then able to hold onto fans’ funds instead of offering a return; good times… As we are running low on fresh produce, instead of risking infection at Meijer, we submitted our first Shipt order for same day delivery.
Important headlines over the past two days:
A store in Pennsylvania decided to throwaway $35,000 worth of contaminated inventory after a customer purposely coughed over the store’s produce, meat case, and bakery.
The Department of Justice will now charge individuals who intentionally spread the virus with terrorism for the “purposeful exposure and infection of others”.
New York City is now using 45 refrigerated truck trailers, each capable of holding 44 bodies, as it expects the city’s morgues and hospital to be overwhelmed with the dead.
Over the past 24 hours, the US has reported 14,024 new cases, and 265 deaths, bringing the US totals to nearly 70,000 infected and over 1,000 deaths.
With the Trump administration hoping to “open the country back up” Easter weekend, many health experts continue to warn about about second waves of infections if the lockdowns are eased early.
US weekly jobless claims soared to 3.28 million (though 1.5 million was expected), shattering the “great recession” peak of 665,000 in March 2009. The Federal Reserve of St. Louis is predicting 32% unemployment rate through June.
Italy is now fining anyone outside their home without valid reason 3000€, up to six years of prison if caught lying, and five years if positive for the virus and breaking quarantine.
Mayor Bowser of Washington DC has requested a shutdown of non-essential businesses through April 24, and is asking citizens to stay home.
A $2 trillion congressional economic relief package should be signed into law shortly, with payments of $1,200 (for those eligible) to Americans set to be received in mid-April.
Per the “Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China National Immigration Administration”, China will ban entry of foreign national effective March 28.
Hospitals in the US are weighing the application of blanket Do Not Resuscitate orders for coronavirus patients due to equipment shortages.
Trump wishes to “reopen” the country in two and a half weeks - here’s what would happen:
The New York Times put together some great models showing how the length of intervention could save millions. If we reopened the country in two weeks from today, it’s possible 126.5 million people in the US would contract the virus by late October, with June 5th being the peak with 37.8 million infected. More than 1.3 million would die in the US. Now, if extended the lockdowns to sixty days, 13.9 million people would contract the virus across the US through late October, with October 25 being the peak with 3 million infected. More than 82,300 people would die. Graphs depicting both models may be found below.
The current numbers:
Per the Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Cases by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University (JHU) latest update on 3/26/2020 @ 1:26:21am EDT there are as follows:
510,108 total confirmed cases globally
75,233 of these are in the US
22,993 deaths globally
1,070 of these are from the US
World - click / tap to expand image.
US - click / tap to expand image.
