[If you haven’t already OD’d on coronavirus news, you might appreciate this excellent documentary. It’s worth taking about an hour of your stay-at-home time to watch…. Thanks to my sister Joan in Michigan, safe and snug up in the north country, riding out the COVID storm and a few April snowstorms! – R.S.]
Category Archives: Coronavirus
Coronavirus: Tuesday’s numbers show California hasn’t flattened COVID-19 curve yet
Mask orders go into effect in some counties as deaths, new cases rise around the state
Vallejo Times-Herald, by Evan Webeck, April 22, 2020
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Cases spiked Tuesday for a second straight day and California reported the third-most deaths in a single 24-hour period since the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak.
The deadly respiratory illness, caused by the new coronavirus, claimed another 93 lives in the state Tuesday as California’s death toll climbed to 1,316, according to data compiled by the Bay Area News Group.
The state has seen its largest increase in cases the past two days, adding nearly 2,000 on Tuesday alone to bring its total to 35,802. Patients in acute hospital beds, as well as intensive care units, rose by about 3% to 3,365 and 1,241, respectively. Statewide, the case count has grown by nearly 15% since the week began.
Those numbers would seem to indicate California has not yet turned the corner in its fight against the virus.
One widely cited model predicted the state passed its peak late last week. But there have been five days on which the state has reported more fatalities than the model projected on its deadliest day, and two since the projected peak. Researchers revised their projections Tuesday to show the state’s final death occurring May 12, with a final death toll of 1,743 (with a confidence interval from 1,340 to 2,701) — about 400 more than its total as of Tuesday.
But a lack of widespread testing has made it difficult to gauge what stage the outbreak is in. Labs in the state conducted their 300,000th test Monday, the most recent day for which data was available, but that still amounts to less than 1% of the state’s total population. Gov. Gavin Newsom set a goal of performing 25,000 tests per day, but on Tuesday, he admitted that wouldn’t be enough.
Another variable was thrown into the equation Tuesday. Officials in Santa Clara County discovered new deaths from from COVID-19 as far back as Feb. 6, a whole month before what was believed to be the first coronavirus fatality in the county and weeks before what had been thought to be the first death in the nation on Feb. 29 in the state of Washington.
“To have at least three people right around the beginning of February and late January already have the infection and two of them pass away means the virus has been around for a while,” County Executive Jeff Smith said. “It’s a much more dangerous virus than we initially recognized because we had limited testing.”
Residents in several California counties will now be required to cover their faces in most public settings, or risk possible fines or misdemeanor charges.
Six Bay Area counties begin enforcement of face coverings order, Solano not among them
LAFAYETTE, Calif. (KRON) – Six Bay Area counties on Wednesday will begin enforcement of face coverings in essential businesses and on public transit, all in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
Counties that begin enforcement today are:
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- Alameda
- Contra Costa
- Marin
- San Francisco
- San Mateo
Sonoma County began enforcement of its face covering requirement last Friday.
Santa Clara County officials have yet to require face coverings but instead “strongly urges” its residents to cover up.
Solano County is also recommending face coverings but not requiring them as of Wednesday.
Face coverings will be required inside grocery stores and while waiting in line to get inside, too.
You must wear a face covering when you work at an essential business as well, like the grocery store or pharmacy, or when you are visiting a healthcare provider or facility.
Face coverings are also required when waiting in line for public transportation or riding it.
Businesses in the county are not recommended to serve customers who do not follow the order.
You do not need a mask if you are working in an office alone, or in the car alone, or at your home.
The order does not require children 12 and under to wear a mask and children ages 2 and under should not wear them at all for risk of suffocation.
While exercising outside, you are encouraged to have 6 feet of distance between others.
It’s a good idea to carry a face covering with you so you can easily put it on if you can’t keep distance from others.
You can cover your face with a cloth, bandana, or even a t-shirt, but leave the medical-grade masks for healthcare workers.
VIDEO: Republican Group Endorses Biden With Anti-Trump Ad In Battleground States
George Conway’s Lincoln Project hits Trump and praises Biden in a blistering new video.
Huffington Post, by Ed Mazza, April 21, 2020
A conservative group critical of President Donald Trump is going on the attack with a new ad endorsing former Vice President Joe Biden for November’s election.
[First, a Lincoln Project ad on the Huffington Post Youtube Channel: “Trump Gets Scorched in GOP Ad“]
The spot from The Lincoln Project, titled “Ready,” lauds Biden as “a bipartisan leader who puts good ideas ahead of party politics” and praises his strength and character.
“America knows Joe Biden,” the narrator states. “He is the man for this moment.”
“Donald Trump has left America in a state of danger, despair and economic depression, and the risks are too high to allow him another term,” Jennifer Horn, one of the co-founders of The Lincoln Project, said in a news release.
The group’s other leaders include conservative attorney George Conway, husband of counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway, along with GOP strategists Rick Wilson, Steve Schmidt and John Weaver.
The ad is airing in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and in Grand Rapids, Michigan, both key markets in swing states Trump won in 2016.
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