COVID-19 Update 2020-04-01

There are 930,506 confirmed cases of COVID-19 confirmed globally so far today, up from 471,035 last Wednesday, with 46,774 deaths and 193,750 recoveries.

Spanish efforts to limit the disease spread seem to be paying off. While the daily number of new cases is still quite large, new daily confirmed cases has remained below the March 26th peak of +8,271. Spain reports +8,195 new confirmed cases today.

Multiple main stream news outlets have begun questioning China’s official tally of 81,518 cases and 3,305 fatalities. Yahoo News reports that most Wuhan residents believe “the actual number (of deaths) is at least 40,000” in Wuhan alone.

“We know the government has a history of manipulating data. This is not new in China,” said Yaqiu Wang, a China researcher at Human Rights Watch in an article in the Boston Herald. “There are so many instances of the government lying about statistics, so it’s hard to believe this time would be different.”

There are +22,878 new confirmed cases in the US so far today, bringing the total to 211,408.

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

About 2 fifths of all US confirmed cases are in New York, followed by New Jersey, Michigan, California, Massachusetts, Florida and Illinois. New cases in Washington state have slowed dramatically.

On March 31st, Covid-19 killed 912 people in the US. Only Cancer and Heart disease claimed more lives. Covid-19 killed 6 times more people than the seasonal flu for the day. There were 247 Covid-19 fatalities on March 25th and 56 fatalities on March 19th.

The US population is apparently prepared to “take the edge off” the concerning situation as sales of alcoholic beverages in the U.S. rose 55 percent in the week ending March 21, according to Nielsen data.

California is showing some signs the Shelter in Place policy may be helping, as Bay Area Emergency Rooms continue to operate under capacity as of March 30th.

There are 8,704 confirmed cases in the California so far today, compared to 83,712 cases in New York.

A tradition of applauding from balcony windows at sunset to show support for health care workers has spread from Italy to much of the world. San Francisco and much of the Bay Area will see cheering and howling at 7PM this evening.

The total cases confirmed in Santa Cruz county is 54.

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