Here’s our daily look at our current situation. In a nutshell, the world, the national, the state and Knox County continue to see new cases, while governments have seen the necessity to reopen. Tensions are running high on numerous fronts. Conspiracy theories are springing up like mushrooms after a rainstorm. People are being shot, push or spat upon over restrictions. Locally, with low numbers, so far, many people appear to be disregarding recommendations from medical professionals.
What happens going forward will be a fascinating study in human behavior. Maybe a tragic one. Will warmer weather allow the virus to recede in the northern hemisphere? If so, will that embolden us further and set us up for a worse second round? Will the first round continue and intensify now that so many seem to feel confident we can move forward?
International News:
The mid-day numbers are sobering. 3,856,045 cases have been confirmed world-wide. 266,213 people are acknowledged to have died of the virus. According to Worldometer, there were 95,325 new cases confirmed yesterday. This is the 3rd highest daily number since the beginning of the pandemic. Only one day has exceeded 100,000.
A high plateau range of between 70,000 and the mid 90,000 range in new daily cases has been maintained. Yesterday pushes the upper edges of the range and is the highest total since April 24. The reported death total for yesterday was 6,811, one of the top ten or so worst days since the beginning of the pandemic.
Russian and Brazil are in serious peril with the pandemic. Brazil reported almost 12,000 new cases yesterday, while Russia reported nearly 11,000. While the U.S. continues in a much higher range, this numbers represent much larger percentage of cases increases and they also come in countries with smaller populations. While the U.S. has a population of 328 million, Russia has a population of about 145 million and Brazil has a population of about 209 million.
While neither country has yet reached the heights of the worst hit countries in total or per capita deaths or cases, they are rapidly heading in that direction. Moscow reportedly has many more cases than are being officially acknowledged. Other than Brazil, several South or Central American countries appear to be quickly getting worse, including Peru, Mexico and Chile.
India has reported it’s worst daily numbers within the last three days. It’s curve is bending more steeply upward. Saudi Arabia and the U.K. continue to have high percentages of increases. It’s worth noting that both France and Spain, which have faded from the news somewhat, continue to produce over 3,000 new daily cases each.
National News:
As of mid-day there are 1,269,589 cases and 75,490 deaths confirmed in the United States. 25,459 new cases were reported yesterday and 2,528 confirmed deaths. Both are in the range we’ve maintained for sometime. New cases, after exceeding 30,000 a few days in April, have recently settled into the mid 20,000 range. The 2,528 deaths yesterday is the fifth worst single-day death toll since the virus began.
Some of the national economic fall-out is coming into focus as companies, many of whom struggled before the pandemic are requesting bankruptcy protection. The most prominent national names so far are Neiman Marcus and J.Crew.
In more health related news, a personal aid to President Trump has tested positive for COVID-19. The president and staff continue to get weekly or more often tests, from which they get results in 15 minutes, and have thus far tested negative.
As we learn more about the virus, more oddities come to the fore. Children have been thought to be relatively safe from the virus, if infected, and the primary concern has been that they might be carriers to the older members of their families. Now, dozens of children hospitalized in NYC with strange symptoms, which are presumed to be related to the virus. The symptoms include fever, toxic shock syndrome, inflammation and limited blood flow to the heart.
The confrontations regarding restrictions also continue, increasingly ending in violence. Two McDonalds workers in Oklahoma were shot yesterday after they asked patrons to leave the store due to COVID-19 restrictions. The customers were also shot. This follows a Michigan shooting of a security guard requiring a customer to wear a mask, a Family Dollar Store working having a person wipe their nose on his shirt after a request to wear a mask and a park ranger being pushed into a river after a similar request.
State and Local News:
The state of Tennessee is officially reporting 13,938 total cases and 239 deaths. This reflects an increase of 248 cases and 13 deaths since yesterday. 227,101 have been tested, including 8,305 yesterday. 65 people were hospitalized yesterday bring the total hospitalized in Tennessee since the beginning of the pandemic to 1,221.
Locally, the Knox County Health Department is reporting 269 cases and 5 deaths. While deaths have remained static, the overnight increase of 12 cases is the largest single-day increase in a long time, if not for any given day since the pandemic started. We’ve remained below 10, often in the 4-6 range of increases for the last month or so. We currently have 3 people hospitalized and 52 active cases in the community.
Health Department Briefing:
Dr. Buchanan led today’s briefing. She thanked her team who has distributed cloth masks to the community. Yesterday they gave out 1200 cloth masks. She thanked the members of the public who are wearing face coverings. She acknowledged the above numbers and addressed the increases in active case numbers we’ve experienced.
She said we are getting tests back more quickly, resulting them being on the active case list sooner and for longer. Also, the CDC has extended time in quarantine for an active case from 7 to 10 days, also increasing the number on the active list at any one time. They also discovered a cluster yesterday. She did, however, reiterate that there will be a bump in active cases.
She continued to plead with community members to wear masks when in public, wash hands and maintain distance from others. She said additional information is continuing to be added to the website.
Questions:
- There are guidelines regarding masks on the website.
- Wash masks daily, perhaps on gentle cycle and hang them to dry so they last.
- Some people say the masks issued yesterday are porous. She acknowledge they are made of a more porous material.
- How long will it take to see if we need to close back down, again? We want to wait for two weeks to see how high it climbs and whether it then plateaus. The virus will not go away.
- What guidance did the Health Department give the schools about graduations? The schools used Health Department and State guidance and developed their own plans. (The parents and families are not allowed to attend.)
- If parents can’t attend graduation in July, how is it possible that schools can open in August? We are developing plans and may or may not be able to have graduation, at all, depending on what is happening with the virus at that time.
- Many people are not wearing masks. What do you say? That is their right, but wearing one acknowledges your role in helping your community.
- Mayor Jacobs called the school plan a first draft and said he wants parents at graduation. What about that? The Mayor and school officials will make those decisions.