COVID-19 Update 2020-03-30

There are 780,506 confirmed cases of COVID-19 confirmed globally today, up from 378,830 last Monday, with 37,551 deaths and 164,631 recoveries.

The US now has more confirmed cases than China, though the number of deaths in the US remain relatively low at 2,953, indicating that the high number of US cases has more to do with testing protocols.

Lockdown measures in Italy may be showing some positive results, as the numbers of daily new confirmed cases have slowed, after peaking at 6,577 March 21st. Italy reported 4,050 new confirmed cases today.

The disease is truly global at this point, with 190 countries having confirmed cases out of 195 countries in the world. South Africa reported +46 new cases today, bringing their total to 1,326.

There are +16,853 new confirmed cases in the US so far today, bringing the total to 160,344.

The US is now reporting more new cases daily than any other country including Italy.

About half of all US confirmed cases are in New York, followed by New Jersey, California and Washington. New cases in Washington state have slowed dramatically.

As of the 28th of March, Covid-19 is now the third most common daily cause of death in the US, behind only Heart Disease and Cancer. That means that Covid-19 is now killing more Americans per day than either Car Accidents, Strokes, Alzheimer’s or Diabetes.

Gov. Gavin Newsom said Saturday that the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 spiked to more than 1,000 in California and that overnight the number of people admitted to intensive care units doubled from 200 to more than 400.

There are 6,528 confirmed cases in the California so far today.

The total cases confirmed in Santa Cruz county is 41.

FEMA has asked families to limit food stockpiling and “Please only buy what your family needs for a week”, explaining that “Freight flows are not disrupted, but stores need time to restock.”

Many local department stores have had shortages of certain items. Several stores limited the number of certain items per customer to prevent hoarding. Some stores are offering pick up or delivery services.

There is no reason to expect food shortages.

Visit the Coronavirus Daily Update Page on KSCO.com for more info.

You can find out more from the County of Santa Cruz Health Services Agency, by going to santacruzhealth.org.

If you experience Fever, Cough or Shortness of Breath, please call your Health Care Professional.

Regardless of how healthy you are, to protect the most vulnerable, don’t be a disease vector. Take action by staying home as much as possible.

As is always true to prevent any communicable disease, stay home if you are sick, wash your hands frequently, cough or sneeze into your elbow, avoid touching your face, and remember, don’t pick your nose!!

– The COVID-19 Update from KSCO’s Director of Digital Media, Jonty McCollyer