Thanks, both. I know it’s alarming, it’s just really hard to get a gauge on HOW alarming. The Canada map at least shows that my region is the worst in Canada, so that’s something.
And there’s the first case in Madagascar.
Game over.
And it was the President who made the announcement. I bet Reuters was aware of the reference.
276,113 confirmed infections
11,402 dead
91,952 recovered
In the US:
19,640 confirmed infections
264 dead
147 recovered
Yesterday’s numbers for comparison:
Tomorrow we will overtake both Iran and Germany in number of confirmed infections. There is also a good chance we will leap over Spain for the #3 spot.
On May 2, Iran had 1501 confirmed infections; the US had 100. It only took us 18 days to catch up to them (they have 4 more than us at the moment) and one more (tomorrow) to pass them.
This afternoon’s update from Austria:
[ul]
[li] In stark contrast to the panic buying that has plagued UK supermarkets, Austrian food dealers are reporting a surplus of stock. This is attributed to the sudden closing of restaurants, cafes, and bars, which are no longer buying ingredients in large quantities. As a result, some fruit and vegetable dealers are reportedly giving their food away rather than let it spoil. I believe I may have experienced this myself: a couple days ago we ordered pizza from a local restaurant (since restaurants are permitted to stay open for delivery orders only). Though we ordered and paid for only two medium-size pizzas, they delivered two enormous, family-sized pizzas loaded up with way more toppings than usual. I guess the pizzeria is also trying to deplete its stock of ingredients before it spoils. Meanwhile it seems we are going to be eating leftover pizza for the next week.[/li]
[li] The city-state of Vienna has put a temporary freeze on all evictions. No one in the city is going to lose their rented home as a result of the coronavirus crisis (at least, not while the mandatory home quarantine is in effect). Again, this is a rather stark contrast to the UK, where the government has bailed out landlords and other property owners by instituting a freeze on mortgage payments, but has not frozen rent payments or instituted any other protections for tenants.[/li]
[li] The Austrian government has just allocated €22 million for medical research on the treatment of coronavirus, and €5 to support artists who cannot work during the crisis.[/li]
[li] Current civilian service conscripts will have their term extended by three months. (Recall from my previous postings that Austria has mandatory conscription for all males of school-leaving age; there is a choice between military and civilian service.) 1400 former civilian service conscripts have already volunteered for further duty at the Red Cross.[/li]
[li] As I previous reported, Hungary has opened its border with Austria for a second time to allow stranded Bulgarians and Romanians to transit home. Currently this has resulted in traffic on the Austrian side backed up by 30 km. (So far not as bad as the 50 km traffic jam the previous time.)[/li]
[li] Latest statistics: 2664 infected, 7 dead, 9 recovered. 97,500 people have registered as unemployed since Sunday night.[/li][/ul]
Thanks so much for these updates, psychonaut!
From the BBC’s live reporting feed:
I think it’s worth emphasizing what “recovered” means. I haven’t checked out the case counting websites, but usually it means a case that tests positive and is retested again after some time with the second test coming back negative. I believe this can take 11-20 days or longer.
To do tests, you need kits and testing medium and labs to do the actual testing. Canada has public labs which have a limited capacity, and has thus restricted tests to those with symptoms or a strong history of exposure with an emphasis on higher priority cases. It is asking possible cases just to self-isolate.
In areas doing limited testing, doing repeat tests to show recovery often aren’t being done. If symptoms improve and the patient isolates, it is assumed. They don’t want to retest milder cases saving capacity for later, sicker patients who will require a test.
The bottom line? If you did ten times as much testing in some places, you might find ten times as many cases. The number of confirmed cases is a minimum number, not a correct one. The number of recovered patients is also much lower than actual. The number of patients requiring hospitalization, ICU care or dying is of most relevance.
Five Euros for the total community of distressed artists sounds like a US funding level. 
Oops—I meant to write “€5 million”.
[ul]
[li]The continent now has over 1,100 confirmed infections in at least 40 of Africa’s 54 countries.[/li]
[li]Nigeria is closing it’s airports for at least one month. Angola did likewise and also closed land and sea borders.[/li]
[li]Despite closing all borders, Namibian media showed Angolan President Joao Lourenco at Saturday’s inauguration of Namibian President Hage Geingob. Also in attendance was President Mokgweetsi Masisi of neighboring Botswana, which this week suspended international travel by all government employees. :rolleyes:[/li]
[li]Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa also was at the inauguration. :eek:[/li][/ul]
Another way of looking at it: in a single day, we’ve gone from 5.8% to 7.1% of the world’s confirmed cases. (We’ve got about 4.3% of the world’s population.)
And of course, we’re still having to engage in extreme rationing of testing, with people showing all the symptoms being told to go home and self-quarantine w/o testing because there just aren’t enough test kits. So the confirmed cases are just the tip of the iceberg.
I’ve read a lot of Twitter threads about the coronavirus lately. This is one that just brings me to tears:
The writer is Jeremy Konyndyk (bio).
April is going to be a disaster.
The president is sounding really unsound at the live presser right now. i know that kind of thing is often said about Trump but right now, watching him demonstrate complete obliviousness of the gravity of the situation this country is facing… it’s breath-taking. This is really bad. He is not a normal politician or a normal person.
Saw Pence speaking the other day, away from Trump and in charge of the room. That guy is repulsive in his many of his anti-human views but damned if he didn’t sound competent addressing whatever he was talking about. Sure, he was spinning it this way and that to paint the best picture possible for the administration and himself but that’s politics as usual. He didn’t say anything earth-shaking or even especially important, but he sounded competent.
The Dems need to tell him that it’s 25th Amendment time.
The president is sounding really unsound at the live presser right now. i know that kind of thing is often said about Trump but right now, watching him demonstrate complete obliviousness of the gravity of the situation this country is facing… it’s breath-taking. This is really bad. He is not a normal politician or a normal person.
Saw Pence speaking the other day, away from Trump and in charge of the room. That guy is repulsive in his many of his anti-human views but damned if he didn’t sound competent addressing whatever he was talking about. Sure, he was spinning it this way and that to paint the best picture possible for the administration and himself but that’s politics as usual. He didn’t say anything earth-shaking or even especially important, but he sounded competent.
I worried that Fauci may become a victim of all this and die.
By his own hand.
He started with “financial” and he stayed with financial news. WTF? “Walmart is making a huge profit” etc., etc.
Fuck him. Fuck his administration.
I think the 5 euro is for distressed buskers. It goes directly into the guitar case.