Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

This blog will pay for itself.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

đŸŽ¶ Those boots were made for mockin’ đŸŽ”

People are complicated. Love is not.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

You can’t love your country only when you win.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

This really is a full service blog.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 Coronavirus / COVID-19 Coronavirus Update: Saturday-Sunday, August 8-9

COVID-19 Coronavirus Update: Saturday-Sunday, August 8-9

by | 42 Comments

This post is in: ,


======

======


======

Reader Interactions

42Comments

  1. 1.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Overnight Bill? They will suddenly have the facilities to process all these tests in an expeditious fashion overnight??? Let me explain how construction and manufacturing works to you Bill…

    Again, I only see an incentive to process fewer tests.

  3. 3.

    Amir Khalid

    Malaysia’s daily numbers. 13 new cases. Four cases from local infection: all Malaysians, three in Penang state (two of them in the Sivagangga cluster) and one in the Federal Territory of Putrajaya (seat of the Federal Government). Nine imported cases: five Malaysians, returning from Yemen, China, India, Qatar and Japan; four non-Malaysians, arriving from China, India, Indonesia and Japan. Cumulative reported total 9,083 cases.

    Nine more patients recovered and were discharged. Total 8,784 patients recovered, 96.7% of the cumulative reported total. Active and contagious cases being isolated/treated in hospital are up slightly to 174  patients; the one patient in ICU is not on a respirator.

    No new deaths since 31 July. Total remains at 125 deaths, 1.38% of the cumulative reported total, and 1.41% of resolved cases.

    Two schools have been closed in the northern Peninsular state of Perlis. They are in the targeted enhanced movement control order (TEMCO) zone declared a few days ago after the emergence of the Sivagangga cluster in nearby Kedah.

  5. 5.

    YY_Sima Qian

    Yesterday, China reported 15 new domestic confirmed cases and no new domestic asymptomatic cases, all new cases at Ürumqi in Xinjiang “Autonomous” Region. 10 cases in critical condition, and 25 in serious condition. There are currently 625 confirmed cases (622 in Ürumqi, 1 each at Kashgar,  Changji Prefecture and Xinjiang Construction Corps), and 123 asymptomatic cases (122 in Ürumqi, 1 in Changji Prefecture), plus 1 asymptomatic case exported to Shaoxing in Zhejiang Province. 30 confirmed cases recovered yesterday and were released from hospitals, 4 asymptomatic cases were released from medical quarantine. 2 serious cases have stabilized to moderate conditions, and 1 critical case improved to serious conditions. There are 18882 close contacts under quarantine and medical observation.
    For the 3rd consecutive day, Dalian in Liaoning Province did not report any new cases, confirmed or asymptomatic. 5 confirmed case has recovered and was released from hospital, and 3 asymptomatic cases were also released from medical quarantine. 1 serious cases, 67 moderate cases, and 11 mild cases are currently in the hospital.
    The outbreak at Ürumqi has clearly turned, with the significant decrease in confirmed and asymptomatic cases, as well as the number of close contacts under observation. During both Ürumqi and Dalian outbreaks, plotting the curve of asymptomatic cases actually predicted peak in confirmed cases by ~ 4 days. This can only be the case if cases are largely being caught during their pre-symptomatic phases. Number of close contacts is a rough proxy for state of the outbreak and competence of contact tracing, but might be a trailing indicator.
    Yesterday, China reported 8 new imported confirmed cases, 11 imported asymptomatic cases, and 5 suspect cases:

    • Guangzhou in Guangdong Province – 5 confirmed case, 3 Chinese nationals returning from the Philippines, 1 each from the US and Saudi’ Arabia; 8 asymptomatic cases, 3 Chinese nationals returning from Saudi Arabia, 2 each from Bangladesh and India, 1 from the Philippines
    • Shanghai Municipality – 2 confirmed cases, 1 Chinese national returning from the United Arab Emirates and 1 returning from
    • Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from Indonesia
    • Zhangzhou Port in Fujian Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Filipino crew member off a cargo ship
    • Kunming in Yunnan Province – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from Indonesia

    Today, Hong Kong reported 72 new cases, 63 from local transmission, 24 of whom do not have clear source of transmission.

  7. 7.

    Amir Khalid

    @YY_Sima Qian:

    No; the Health Ministry informationvonly says what country an imported case came from, it doesn’t say what part of the country. Although, yes, that would be useful to know.

  8. 8.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @Amir Khalid: Hopefully that information is being shared with source countries so epidemiological investigation and contact tracing. Time and again we have seen that then long pre-symptomatic period and high percentage of mild cases can mean the virus has circulated in the community for a while before being detected by the authorities, until a critical mass of moderate to severe cases builds to catch their attention, or a moderate to severe case happens to be tested.

    With the drastic reduction in international travel, for 2 cases to be exported from China to Malaysia would suggest wherever they traveled from has an outbreak in their hands (unless it is Ürumqi).

  10. 10.

    The Thin Black Duke

    I’m still trying to wrap my head around what’s going down in Sturgis. Unbelievable.

  11. 11.

    Jay Noble

    How many clinics and rural hospitals are sitting empty because of non-expansion of Medicaid? We have what was our primary hospital 3 years ago sitting there empty as far as I know. Full lab and everything. I haven’t heard a peep about it. Closed VA hospitals. University labs. Abandoned malls for goodness sakes. The basics are all out there and better than a lot of countries have.

    Staffing

    One of the things that came across my endless job search was scholarships to become a lab tech. Now that’s 1 to 2 years to get certified from scratch. Other than not having the physical skills, I could do the science but would graduate just in time to take early retirement. BUT how many science and health field students are already trained enough to do nothing but process Covid tests? Can’t go to class? How about we put some of those student loans to rest?

    We can do the tesing and tracing and all of it if somebody(ies) gets out there and pushes. Lebron, Michael The Hanks’, the Swifties, KPOPers . . .

  13. 13.

    Jay Noble

    @The Thin Black Duke: The thing about Sturgis is a third to half  are not your old school bikers. They are doctors, lawyers and managemnt professionals who have their bikes brought in, in trailers or even just rent them when they get there. So from the mechanics to the board rooms, this is going hit a whole bunch of folks. Some of them we knew their politics, some we’re gonna find out.

  14. 14.

    Sloane Ranger

    I tuned into CNN’s The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer just before going to bed last night. Although Blitzer’s name was still there it was actually hosted by someone I don’t remember seeing before. I can’t remember his name.

    Anyway, he was interviewing the Head of Bikers for Trump from Sturgis. He let this guy spout all the usual right wing conspiracy theories about the virus and then began to deconstruct them one by one using logic. You say the death toll is being exaggerated to make Trump look bad? But other countries have high death tolls too. Are their governments part of the conspiracy? Why? Surely people dying makes them look bad to their voters? Doctors across the world are reporting these deaths from their own personal experience. Are they all in the conspiracy as well?

    Unfortunately you could see all this logic was just breaking against the rock like substance that constituted the Trumpster’s forehead.

    At the end, the guy alleged that a friend of his had returned an unused test and got a positive result as evidence that the numbers of cases were being exaggerated. The presenter immediately asked him to stay on after the end of the interview and give his friend’s name and contact details to an intern as that would be an important story in its own right. I bet he didn’t.

    Slightly off topic, what is it with right wing groups and military terminology. At the start of the interview, the Bikers for Trump guy announced that they’d arrived in Sturgis and set up their “Command Centre “. Oh for God’s sake!

  15. 15.

    Amir Khalid

    @Sloane Ranger:

    what is it with right wing groups and military terminology.

    They like talking military talk for the same reason they like wearing jungle camo in town: playing at soldiers makes them feel like tough guys.

  16. 16.

    prostratedragon

    That tweet about Kemp and Georgia leads to other threads that tell an outrageous story about the University System of Georgia privatized dormitories and the way the campuses are supposed to be opening up. Corvias, who was partly responsible for the atrocious military housing stories from a while back, is the operator of those dorms. Just one of many chickenshit details:

    Second, please note that we intend to follow, as closely as reasonably possible, applicable CDC Guidance relating to social distancing and cleanliness/disinfecting, as well as APPA standards relating to cleanliness. However, it should be specifically noted that pursuant to applicable CDC Guidance, social distancing is not required amongst housemates – and roommates are considered housemates. Accordingly, while the CDC may be of the belief that reducing density in student housing may lower the possibility of infection, we do not believe that requires a reduction in the number of roommates that would typically be permitted in the Phase 1 Student Housing or the number of students that can be housed in a given building. Rather, we believe a more appropriate course of action would be to do things like limit the occupancy and use of common areas, shared bathrooms, and elevators – all things we are already preparing to address, if and as necessary this Fall. [My emphasis — pd]

    That whole thread is quite an excursion on its own. “An internal document from the University System of Georgia Board of Regents demonstrates how corporate entities in Public-Private Partnerships (P3s) with schools are working to make campuses less safe this fall. “

  17. 17.

    Amir Khalid

    @Sloane Ranger:

    I’m watching that interview right now on CNN’s YouTube channel. “I’m not a conspiracy theorist,” insists Mr Bikers for Trump, in between spouting crazy conspiracy theories about Covid-19. Facepalm.

  19. 19.

    Skepticat

    The Bahamas has had a surge in cases, to 830 with 14 deaths, so we’ve been back under lockdown for a while. Unsurprisingly, most of the cases involve travel to/from Florida and none are close.

    The brutal heat (as Abaco enters its 341st day without power since Dorian), forecasts of another hideous hurricane season, and having overstayed my allotted immigration time have convinced this New Englander to get back to Maine for a while. I still have a lot to do to get things under cover for the season, but it’s simply too hot for me to manage. In two weeks, weather permitting, I’ll be flying back with the friends who give me transportation and keep my car, and the cats and I will head north. The usual routine is to stay a week or so in Virginia with longtime friends, but they’ve told me they prefer I not stop because after months in an area free of the virus, I’ll have been in Florida for several hours, almost all of those in the air in a private plane or in the car. I respect their caution, but these are people who go shopping, out to eat, to doctor’s appointments, and visit other friends—and Virginia has 99,189 cases today. Actually, it’s probably safer for me to just keep going. Soooo, I get to wrangle three cats in and out of hotels, as I’m long past the age of driving straight through. However, the prospect of cooler weather and having power makes it worthwhile. I’m whining now, but I know that the minute we’re wheels up, I’ll be fine and ready for the adventure.

  20. 20.

    Ramalama

    @Jay Noble:

    We can do the tesing and tracing and all of it if somebody(ies) gets out there and pushes.

    Have you read this about rapid testing from Harvard Magazine:

    everyone must be tested, every couple of days, with $1, paper-based, at-home tests that are as easy to distribute and use as a pregnancy test: wake up in the morning, add saliva or nasal mucous to a tube of chemicals, wait 15 minutes, then dip a paper strip in the tube, and read the results. Such tests are feasible

    These rapid testing kits work but not perfectly. But…

    “Imagine you are a fire department,” he says, “and you want to make sure that you catch all the fires that are burning so you can put them out. You don’t want a test that’s going to detect every time somebody lights a match in their house—that would be crazy: you’d be driving everywhere and having absolutely no effect. You want a test that can detect every time somebody is walking the streets with a flame-thrower.”

  21. 21.

    Jack Canuck

    Haven’t seen Terben around for a while, so I’ll jump in with the Australian stats – seen up close and personal since I live in the current epicentre in Melbourne and not in the safer surrounds of South Australia. From the Department of Health:

    Total cases: 21,084, of which an estimated 8155 are active. 404 new cases in the last 24 hours.

    295 total deaths; 17 in the last 24 hours.

    Victoria’s by far the worst off: 394 of the new cases were here, and all the deaths. Nearly 8000 active cases in the state. There are something like 1000 cases in health care workers, and over 1600 in aged care homes. Melbourne’s under an 8pm-5am curfew, only permitted workers are allowed to be going to work (a quite restricted list), retail other than essentials is closed, schools are all remote except for children of essential workers, only one trip to the store per household allowed per day, each person is allowed one hour of outdoor exercise, restaurants etc delivery/takeaway only, masks are mandatory anywhere off your own property. The rest of the state is on Stage 3 restrictions (Melbourne’s on Stage 4); milder, but still pretty restrictive, and masks apply state-wide. On the plus side, the seven-day average of new cases has dropped under 500, and it never hit exponential growth – just kind of hit a plateau between 400-700 or so for a week or two. Fingers crossed that all the restrictions and economic pain will do what it needs to. At least we’ve got a sane state government, and while I’m no fan of the federal Liberals (= conservative, right-wing) they’re not batshit insane.

  22. 22.

    artem1s

    hey, some OT weird new VP news… I play one of those phone and ipad games that every once and a while you can get a little perk for watching a video.  most of these are pretty awful pitches to download some new game to your phone and get addicted to that. Occasionally you get a new product pitch.  generally awful enough that the only way the advertiser can get their product in front of an audience is if they are captive who can’t turn them off once they start if they want their little perk. But once in a blue moon, you see something genuinely interesting.  Today I got a an opportunity to sign up for Biden’s VP announcement.  I am so happy the campaign is trying this out as it’s an interesting way of reaching an new audience. But I’m also mortified that now the GOP will also be subjecting me to their version of an in game ad.  Blech!

  23. 23.

    Ken

    @Jack Canuck: The rest of the state is on Stage 3 restrictions (Melbourne’s on Stage 4); milder, but still pretty restrictive

    Interesting, here in Illinois the levels run the other way with stage 1 being the strictest. I think those are based on the CDC recommendations so would be used in the whole U.S.

    One advantage of your approach is that it would be easier to add stricter levels if necessary. Or rather, it would be easier to explain the new levels – 5 is stricter than 4, versus 1A being stricter than 1B.

  24. 24.

    dnfree

    “Last week Americans were about 8 times more likely to be killed by Covid than Europeans.”

    I personally have more fear of being killed by Covid than by Europeans.

    Oh, maybe he meant “than Europeans were”.

  27. 27.

    dnfree

    @Sloane Ranger: The last company I worked for set up a “war room” For quick response to issues when we were implementing a major project. That was the first time I encountered that term, but apparently it has become popular.

  29. 29.

    artem1s

    @The Thin Black Duke:

    I’m still trying to wrap my head around what’s going down in Sturgis.

    Giant county fairs are happening all across the ‘heartland’.  People just can’t wrap their brains around the concept of “no exception”.  Everyone wants to believe their superspreader event is different and they will figuratively die without it. Upside, I guess they get to discover the real meaning of literally.

  30. 30.

    dnfree

    @Amir Khalid: an even better way to express it!  But either way, trying to squeeze a thought into the fewest letters can lead to misinterpretation that could be cleared up by adding just a word or two.

  31. 31.

    The Thin Black Duke

    @WereBear: Thankfully, we haven’t completely lost our collective minds up here in New England. Usually every June in New Hampshire there’s a bike rally (I forget the name), but it was postponed until August, and now they’re talking about cancelling it. Good.

  32. 32.

    MagdaInBlack

    The little Illinois town where I grew up, along the Fox River north of Ottawa….had a town wide garage sale yesterday.  My friend who lives there ( and works in daycare) is horrified.  Then there’s the new biker focused bar, with live music and outside crowds every weekend.  It’s just nuts.

    Stupid is as stupid does

    Eta: In normal times I’d love that bar.

  33. 33.

    Soprano2

    They had the Ozark Empire Fair here this past week. We have a mask ordinance, and most of is outside or in big buildings, but still a bad idea. I heard there were entries from 12 states because so many other fairs were cancelled (I think the MO State Fair was).

    When my sister went to Sturgis many years ago, she went with a friend and her friend’s husband. They were those wealthier executive types; they towed the bikes in a big enclosed trailer. She said the best part was the rides, which were in beautiful country, but the rest was “like spring break for old people”. So yeah, lots of “regular” people there too. I guess the press is too interested in Trump’s ineffective memos to pay much attention to it.

  34. 34.

    Fair Economist

    @OzarkHillbilly: Fewer tests reported promptly would be far more useful than current tests coming in 7 days late. It wouldn’t be all that many fewer anyway; they’d still process about as many each day.

  35. 35.

    mrmoshpotato

    @WereBear:

    So the remake of Jaws will be Sturgis. 

    “When we get them silly bastards down in that rock pile, it’ll be some fun, they’ll wish their fathers had never met their mothers. When they start takin’ their bottoms out and slamming into them rocks, boy!”

  36. 36.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    OT

    Attn. Yo Semites

    The ripple effects of Trump’s jaw dropping buffoonery:

     

    Sales at the National Museum of American Jewish History’s online store have exploded since video of President Donald Trump mispronouncing Yosemite as “Yo Semite” went viral, thanks to a t-shirt the gift shop has had in stock for nearly a decade.

     

    The store pulled in about $30,000 in sales in the 30 hours after Trump’s gaffe during a White House ceremony on Tuesday, according to Kristen Kreider, the museum’s director of retail and visitor experience


     

    Right after Trump mispronounced Yosemite, Kreider reached out to her marketing team and insisted they blast the shirt on social media, picking up on all the hype surrounding “Yo Semite.”

     

    h/t https://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/news/2020/08/07/trump-yo-semite-shirts-national-museum-american.html

  38. 38.

    Drkld

    Sturgis is even more problematic than its nine day run. In actuality it is closer to a 3 week run with people timing their movements to hit the first few days of the rally or the closing days. Each year we spend the last part of July and early August in western MT. Over this time period (2020) we have watched large groups of bikers move thru the area and have yet to observe any mask use. These groups r stopping every 3-4 hours and entering gas stations, bars and cafes which makes them the perfect carriers for the virus from, or into, otherwise buffered areas. The rally will increase positives substantially but they will b dispersed across a range of states. Cell phone tracking similar to what was done for spring breakers is going to give us a pretty horrifying picture and it will give us a feel for how stupid it was to allow this gathering to go forward.

  39. 39.

    Kelly

    Earlier this week Linn County OR, just across the river from us issued a “Declaration of Emergency”. The emergency isn’t the plague. The emergency is the oppressive State of Oregon school opening standards will cause more damage to children minds than the catching the virus will cause to their physical health. Linn County has long had a deep and wide reservoir of wingnuttery.

    http://www.co.linn.or.us/Declaration%20of%20local%20emergency.pdf

  40. 40.

    Sloane Ranger

    Today’s scores on the doors from the UK.

    There were 1062 new cases reported today. 988 of these were in England, 48 in Scotland, 26 in Wales and none in Northern Ireland. This is a big jump in numbers, mostly from England. It looks like my caution about the so called levelling off of cases was justified.

    The good news (if you can call it that) is that there were only 8 new deaths, all in England.

  41. 41.

    Robert Sneddon

    @Sloane Ranger: The Scottish numbers reflect the outbreak in Aberdeen, with over half that count of 48 new cases appearing in the Grampian health board’s bailiwick. The official caseload from test and trace in the outbreak is now up to 131. Saying that remember the numbers published on Sunday and Monday are usually depressed due to some healthcare reporting offices are closed at the weekends.

     

    The eight Aberdeen football players who broke isolation and went out pubbing and clubbing last weekend have apologised (two returned positive tests afterwards), the usual “we didn’t know it was this bad, really, we’re sorry honest” bullshit. They’re just fortunate Nicola Sturgeon couldn’t get hold of them, she’d have bitten lumps out of them.

  42. 42.

    Llelldorin

    Is this just bad infographic week, or what? Who makes a state-by-state plot of “number of cases?” That’s pretty much going to be a map of where the US population lives, with an actual signal buried in the population differences.

Comments are closed.