Your morning briefing of news, data, opinion pieces, videos, and other resources to help you through the Covid-19 pandemic
As of Tuesday, April 21st, in our editorial judgment, here are today’s three biggest issues going on vis-a-vis the pandemic:
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- To re-open our economy, we need an organized program of random sampling to determine the true extent of the Covid-19 virus in the general population. Today, New York begins the country’s first such test.
- States are crying out to the federal government for swabs and reagents, without which they testing kits they’ve been provided are worthless.
- Small businesses are getting desperate for Congress to approve the second tranche of PPP loans, which will cover about two months’ of payroll and rent for affected businesses
GALLERY TEST - Multiple images 3 columns
GALLERY TEST - Multiple images "Tagdiv Slide Gallery"
For new, searchable and sortable tables of data from all countries with at least 6,000 Covid-19 cases to date all 50 U.S. states and, using through Monday, April 20th, click the link in the table above (“Data by country and U.S. state”) or simply scroll to the bottom of this page. (Image below is a just a screenshot for illustration purposes; full table is lower on the page.)
Top findings shown in the tables as the bottom of this page include: (1) In the U.S., cases and deaths grew 4% and 5% respectively yesterday, both up one percentage point from Sunday. (2) New York State’s cases and deaths grew 2% and 3% respectively yesterday, both down one percentage point from Sunday. (3) The percentage of the U.S. population that has been tested for Covid-19 is at 1.3%, which is at 18th place among major countries. (The leaders in Europe are Switzerland and Norway at 2.6%; Canada is at 1.4%.) (4) U.S. states with a double-digit % increase in cases yesterday were Iowa, Nebraska, Arkansas, and Connecticut; those with a double-digit % increase in deaths yesterday were North Dakota, Maryland, West Virginia, Connecticut, Nebraska, and Georgia. (Data source: Worldovision.info)
Various data-tracking websites:
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EXCLUSIVE
Here are some ways you could be of service to others during this shared time of crisis:
- Sew cloth face masks to donate to your friends and neighbors.
- Track down N95 face masks and deliver them to local hospitals.
- Check in with neighbors who are living alone — even if you don’t know them well! — to see how they’re doing and if they need any help.
- Organize a Teddy Bear Hunt (click link for details) for local children.
- Call or write your elected representatives in Congress and urge them to speed up stimulus payments to the most-needy.
- Order a take-out or delivery meal from one of your favorite local restaurants to help them stay in business.
- Buy a gift card, for future use, from one of your favorite local shops.
- Teach a senior citizen or a person suffering from loneliness how to use video chat (e.g., FaceTime, Alexa, Zoom, or Skype video).
- If you have an RV (recreational vehicle), lend it to a medical professional who fears sleeping at home because he or she might expose their family to the virus.
- Donate blood. The need is high, and blood donation centers are open throughout the country, practicing safe distancing and sanitized donation practices.
Also, see some excellent suggestions (including non-profits that need donations) from The Washington Post here. Have other suggestions? Please share them here! (Reader suggestions so far have included teaching the non-tech-savvy how to order groceries online and how to pay bills online…)
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- Is it safe to eat takeout and delivery food?
- What can I do to best help the elderly, sick, and/or unemployed?
- What does “COVID-19” stand for?
- If I’m sick, how can I stay at home without putting my family members at risk?
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EXCLUSIVE
The following table shows U.S. states and territories shown in descending order of total diagnosed cases cases to date, with data through Monday (4/20).
Note that although California has the nation’s 5th-highest number of cases, that is mainly due to the fact that it has a huge population (39.1 million residents). On a population-adjusted basis, it ranks well below the national average in both cases and deaths per million residents (#34 and #29, respectively). (Similarly, Louisiana has a very high number of cases and deaths on a population-adjusted basis.)
This chart is now sortable –– just click a column header once or twice to sort the table in ascending or descending order by that column. It is also searchable — just use the search field at the top right corner of the table. (Data source Worldometers.info/coronavirus.)
How countries rank
This table of world countries, with data through Monday (4/20), is sorted in descending order of Covid-19 cases identified to date. Note that while the U.S. ranks #1 in total cases, it only ranks #6 in terms of total cases per million population. (Conclusion: It isn’t fair to say, as some have been saying, that the U.S. has “the world’s worst outbreak” of Covid-19 — at least not on a population-adjusted basis. That said, it moved up from 7th place to 6th place yesterday)
Also note that in terms of the number of tests that have been conducted to date, as a percentage of the population the U.S. ranks behind several other countries, with only 1.2% of its population having been tested so far. Note that the data columns are sortable — just click once or twice in the header at the top of the column to sort the table by that column in ascending or descending order.
Data source: Worldometers.info. Countries included in this table are all countries with at least 6,000 reported Covid-19 cases.