H5N1

COVID-19 on Saturday night: 45,960,780 cases, 1,193,859 deaths

Various case-counting dashboards offer various numbers: Covidly and Worldometer are usually higher than WHO and Johns Hopkins. In one sense, it doesn't matter; even the highest counts are likely far short of the true numbers. 

But Johns Hopkins seems to be the accepted standard, so that's the one I keep turning to. Here's the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus COVID-19 (2019-nCoV) dashboard as of 7:39 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time:

Note that the UK has joined the One Million Club. We will surely hit 46 million early tomorrow morning, and then 47 million on November 2 or 3, and so on. The pandemic shows few signs of levelling off, and then only in a handful of countries. The rest continue a spiral into disaster, led by the United States under Donald Trump. 

Covid-19 News: US breaks global case record

Via The New York Times: Covid-19 News: U.S. Breaks Global Case Record. Excerpt:

The United States, after battling the coronavirus for eight months, recorded over 99,000 new cases on Friday, a global record. Two dozen states reported their worst weeks for new cases; none showed any improvement.  

Fourteen states reported single-day records for new cases on Friday: Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Montana, Illinois, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Oregon, Kansas, Ohio, Colorado and Maine. And three states hit record deaths: Tennessee, Montana and New Mexico.  

At least 1,200 counties — a full third of the country — now qualify as a virus hot spot, Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, said in private a call with governors on Friday. But on the same day, President Trump once again sought to play down the severity of the coronavirus. At a campaign rally in Michigan, he ridiculed a reporter for wearing a mask, claimed that “doctors get more money if somebody dies from Covid” and implied that deaths from the virus were artificially inflated. 

The outbreaks look different across the country, with the surge cresting at varying levels in different clusters of states.  

In the Great Plains, North Dakota and South Dakota have recorded extremely high numbers of cases for weeks: The Dakotas are ranked first and second nationally in cases per capita. Officials in North Dakota reported a single-day record on Friday for the second day in a row. The neighboring states of Montana and Wyoming also hit single-day records for new cases on Friday. 

In the Midwest, Illinois, Ohio and Michigan are experiencing swift, alarming rises in case counts. In Illinois, new cases have increased 70 percent in two weeks, with more than 8,010 new cases on Friday, the second single-day record in a row. Ohio reported 3,845 new cases on Friday, the second single-day record in a row. And Michigan has been averaging more than 2,800 cases per day for the past week, an increase of 91 percent from the average two weeks ago.  

In the Northeast, though numbers in states like New Hampshire and Maine remain low, they are backsliding after long periods of stability. Maine in particular has seen three of the four highest single-day totals this week. Rhode Island limited gatherings to 10 people on Friday, after a single high school party led to five positive coronavirus cases in the state and 1,000 people in quarantine. 

In the West, Colorado and Utah both reported single-day records for new cases. Last Friday, Utah officials issued urgent pleas saying they were planning to open a field hospital. A week later, the state reported a record 2,260 new cases. Officials deployed a statewide wireless emergency alert because of the rising case counts on Friday, which read: “Almost every county is a high transmission area. Hospitals are nearly overwhelmed.” 

Hospitalizations and deaths are also trending upward. Across the nation, more than 46,600 people were hospitalized with the virus on Friday, an increase of about 25 percent over the past two weeks, according to The Covid Tracking Project. The country has averaged just over 800 deaths a day over the past week. 

On Thursday, more than 1,000 Americans died from Covid-19, an increase of 16 percent from two weeks ago. On the same day, Donald Trump Jr., the president’s son, said in an appearance on Fox News that deaths were down to “almost nothing.” In total, more than 229,000 Americans have died from the virus.

COVID-19 on Saturday morning: 45,715,864 cases, 1,190,824 deaths

A screenshot from the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus COVID-19 (2019-nCoV) dashboard:

Yesterday saw the highest number of cases ever: 565,797.

 

And here is the dashboard for October 1:

Canada: 109-year-old celebrates birthday days after recovering from COVID-19

Via CBC News: 109-year-old celebrates birthday days after recovering from COVID-19. Excerpt:

An Edmonton woman is celebrating her 109th birthday — just days after beating COVID-19. 

Katie Bunio, born Oct. 30, 1911, is living through her second pandemic. 

The great-great-grandmother was joined by family members from all over Canada for a virtual birthday party on Friday. She's a resident of the Shepherd's Care Foundation's Mill Woods long-term care facility, currently experiencing a coronavirus outbreak that has been connected to more than 100 infections. Bunio was declared recovered from a bout with the disease three days ago.  

When asked how she feels at 109, Bunio had her answer ready. "The same as nine."

Fatalities from COVID-19 are reducing Americans’ support for Republicans at every level of federal office

Via Science Advances: Fatalities from COVID-19 are reducing Americans’ support for Republicans at every level of federal office. The abstract:

Between early March and 1 August 2020, COVID-19 took the lives of more than 150,000 Americans. Here, we examine the political consequences of the COVID-19 epidemic using granular data on COVID-19 fatalities and the attitudes of the American public. 

We find that COVID-19 has led to substantial damage for President Trump and other Republican candidates. States and local areas with higher levels of COVID-19 fatalities are less likely to support President Trump and Republican candidates for House and Senate. 

Our results show that President Trump and other Republican candidates would benefit electorally from a reduction in COVID-19 fatalities. This implies that a greater emphasis on social distancing, masks, and other mitigation strategies would benefit the president and his allies.

See also this story about the report in The Los Angeles Times.

COVID-19: Code red for Winnipeg

Via the Winnipeg Free Press: Code red for Winnipeg. Excerpt:

Winnipeg is in "code red" lockdown as of Monday, and more restrictions are coming into effect across Manitoba as part of its pandemic response system, public health officials announced Friday. 

The capital city's intensive care units are almost full; ICU beds were at 96 per cent capacity in Winnipeg, as of Friday morning. 

Manitoba announced 480 new cases Friday, dating to Oct. 25, and said three more people linked to the Parkview Place outbreak had died. The five-day test positivity rate in Manitoba was 8.6 per cent, climbing in the Winnipeg metropolitan region to 9.7 per cent.  

There was a backlog in data entry, which led to the record-high daily case count announcement, officials said. Of the 480 new cases, two were identified Sunday, four were identified Monday, 44 were identified Tuesday, 193 were identified Wednesday, and 237 were identified Thursday. 

"Even though these numbers seem daunting right now, we know exactly what we can and need to do, because we've done it before. And so right now, today, all Manitobans can take those steps into their own hands to protect themselves, protect their loved ones, protect our community," chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin said.  

As of Monday at 12:01 a.m., all Winnipeg restaurants and bars will close to indoor, in-person service. Grocery stores will continue to be at 50 per cent capacity, and other retail stores are to operate at 25 per cent capacity. All recreation and entertainment facilities will be closed.  

Regions outside of Winnipeg will have to abide by orange level restrictions and gathering size limits. 

The moves are essential for the province to get on top of rapidly rising COVID-19 case counts, Roussin said. 

The new cases announced Friday include 42 in the Interlake-Eastern health region; 25 in the Northern region; 10 in Prairie Mountain; 94 in Southern Health; and 309 cases in Winnipeg.  

Chief provincial nursing officer Lanette Siragusa said non-urgent medical procedures are being cancelled amid a "concerning" glimpse into the strain on the public health system. As of 8:30 a.m. Friday, 68 of Winnipeg's 71 ICU beds were occupied; 19 of those by COVID-19 patients.

COVID-19: State mask stockpiling orders are hurting nursing homes, small clinics

Via NBC News, a Kaiser Health News report by Lauren Weber: State mask stockpiling orders are hurting nursing homes, small clinics. Excerpt:

Nursing homes, small physician offices and rural clinics are being left behind in the rush for N95 masks and other protective gear, exposing some of the country’s most vulnerable populations and their caregivers to COVID-19 while larger, wealthier health care facilities build equipment stockpiles.  

Take Rhonda Bergeron, who owns three health clinics in rural southern Louisiana. She said she’s been desperate for personal protective equipment since her clinics became COVID testing sites. Her plight didn’t impress national suppliers puzzled by her lack of buying history when she asked for 500 gowns. And one supply company allows her only one box of 200 gloves per 30 days for her three clinics. Right now, she doesn’t have any large gloves on-site. 

"So in the midst of the whole world shutting down, you can’t get PPE to cover your own employees,” she said. “They’re refilling stuff to larger corporations when realistically we are truly the front line here.”  

More than eight months into the pandemic, health care leaders are again calling for a coordinated national strategy to distribute personal protective equipment to protect health care workers and their patients as a new wave of disease wells up across most of the country. The demand for such gear, especially in hot spots, can be more than 10 times the pre-pandemic levels. While supply chains have adjusted, and the availability of PPE has improved dramatically since the mayhem of the spring, limited factories and quantities of raw materials still constrain supply amid the ongoing high demand.  

In this free-market scramble, larger hospitals and other providers are stockpiling what they can even while others struggle. Some facilities are scooping up supplies to prepare for a feared wave of COVID-19 hospitalizations; others are following new stockpiling laws and orders in states such as California, New York and Connecticut.  

“They’re putting additional strain on what’s still a fragile hospital supply chain,” said Soumi Saha, vice president of advocacy for Premier Inc., a group-purchasing organization that procures supplies for over 4,000 U.S. hospitals and health systems of various sizes. “We want available product to go to front-line health care workers and not go into a warehouse right now.”

Over a quarter of nursing homes in the country reported a shortage of items such as N95 masks, gloves or gowns from Aug. 24 through Sept. 20. A recent survey from the American Medical Association found 36 percent of physician offices reported having a difficult time securing PPE. And about 90 percent of nonprofit Get Us PPE’s recent requests for help with protective gear have come from non-hospital facilities, such as nursing homes, group homes and homeless shelters.

Hospital beds, oxygen run short in Russia's regions as COVID-19 cases surge

Via Reuters: Hospital beds, oxygen run short in Russia's regions as COVID-19 cases surge. Excerpt:

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Ekaterina Saraichenko, who lives in Saratov, posted a video on Russian social media this month, describing her mother’s ordeal with COVID-19 as they waited for an ambulance she said was taking too long. It came in the end, but her mother died on the way to hospital. 

The situation was more extreme in Omsk, Siberia, where two patients in serious condition were held for 10 hours in an ambulance outside a hospital, waiting for beds to become free. Alexander Burkov, the regional governor, said the incident was “beyond human comprehension” and demanded an investigation.  

Doctors, patients and officials in several Russian regions have been documenting a healthcare system pushed to its limits as coronavirus cases surge and hospital admission turns into a bleak battleground. 

The Kremlin says it recognises that some places are facing crises, but federal resources are being deployed “at lightning speed”. 

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov this week cited a case in the Kurgan region, where doctors had appealed to President Vladimir Putin for help. Russia’s defence ministry sent its doctors there in response, he said.  

Other areas say they haven’t got the help they need.  

“Your job is to admit my patient,” an ambulance worker in Kemerovo tells hospital staff in one video sent to Reuters by a member of the ambulance team. 

“What are we supposed to do with our patients then?” staff reply. There are just under 4,000 beds for coronavirus patients in the Kemerovo region, according to local health ministry data, and 86% are currently full.  

“The patient is on oxygen support,” a medical worker can be heard saying in the background of the video. “By the time you reach a decision...” The voice trails off.  

Tatiana Golikova, Russia’s deputy prime minister, said on Wednesday that the situation with hospital admission had become “critical” in 16 Russian regions, with coronavirus hospitals at over 90% capacity.

COVID-19 on Friday morning: 45,179,529 cases, 1,182,213 deaths

A screenshot from the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus COVID-19 (2019-nCoV) dashboard:

The daily world case count is now routinely over 500,000, so we are adding a million cases every 48 hours. And governments are finding resistance to the very thought of another lockdown. 

COVID-19 spike in LA County brings new alarms

Via The Los Angeles Times: Coronavirus spike in L.A. County brings new alarms. Excerpt:

There were new alarming signs that COVID-19 was spreading again in Los Angeles County, with officials announcing the highest one-day increase in cases not connected to a reporting backlog since August. 

The county reported 1,745 new cases Thursday as well as 19 new deaths. It’s the latest evidence that after declining for several months, the novel coronavirus may be on the rise again in L.A. County and other parts of Southern California.  

If the region does see another spike like the one it experienced during the summer, it would threaten efforts to reopen schools and businesses. Already, Southern California has fallen behind the Bay Area when it comes to slowing the infection rate, allowing places such as San Francisco and Silicon Valley to reopen more quickly. 

“The high numbers of daily cases are very concerning because, as we have seen in the past, increases in cases lead to increases in hospitalizations and deaths,” L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said in a statement. “These increases impede our ability to move forward with reopening additional sectors and getting more children back to school.” 

Officials have expressed concerns that COVID-19 is spreading from social gatherings tied to championship victories by the Lakers and Dodgers. There are also concerns about more potential infections with Halloween and Thanksgiving celebrations.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti urged anyone who gathered to celebrate the teams’ championships to get tested for COVID-19. 

“For those who went to the streets to celebrate … and were around strangers in an unsafe environment, please get tested and stay isolated for 14 days per the county’s Department of Public Health advice,” he said Wednesday. 

Thousands took to the streets Tuesday after the Dodgers won the World Series — despite pleadings from health officials to stay home. 

Officials had urged Dodgers fans to avoid crowds and practice social distancing while cheering on the hometown team and when celebrating their win. L.A. County health authorities have blamed gatherings related to the Lakers’ and Dodgers’ championship season for spreading the virus and preventing the county from reopening more quickly. 

In four Southern California counties — Imperial, San Bernardino, Riverside and Los Angeles — the average number of new daily infections per 100,000 residents over the past week ranked among the top five statewide, according to The Times’ coronavirus tracker. 

Compared to the previous week, new cases in Los Angeles County jumped from an average of 63.4 for every 100,000 residents to 111.3. The average case rate climbed from 77.5 to 140.3 in San Bernardino and from 94.4 to 111.5 in Riverside, while in Imperial new cases soared from an average of 141.5 per 100,000 residents to 225.8.