U.S. COVID update: New cases still rising, up 31% from last week
– New cases: 45,021
– Average: 73,168 (+1,511)
– States reporting: 17/50
– In hospital: 18,332 (+4)
– In ICU: 2,080 (-35)
– New deaths: 159
– Average: 362 (-)More data: https://t.co/IMVlOJpiHt pic.twitter.com/Ivjq8D107h
— BNO|Medriva Newsroom (@medriva) May 8, 2022
The count of U.S. deaths from COVID-19 is nearing 1 million. A breakdown of that number shows which groups have been hit the hardest by the virus.
Here are some takeaways. https://t.co/FyqZc7Lki1
— The Associated Press (@AP) May 6, 2022
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'Stop asking why': Shanghai tightens COVID lockdown, Beijing keeps testing https://t.co/tKzB2Pf3RN pic.twitter.com/KkwtOqJBHw
— Reuters (@Reuters) May 8, 2022
Now.
Shenzhen population- 17m
Total COVID cases- 982, 3 deaths.
Total lockdown time in 2 years- one week.
No mass deaths.
No long COVID.
No kids with hepatitis and other emerging long term complications.
We "live with" COVID just fine. You were sacrificed. pic.twitter.com/xIyigsFUG0— Naomi Wu 机械妖姬 (@RealSexyCyborg) May 7, 2022
India reported 3,805 new Covid-19 infections on Saturday (May 7), 7.3 per cent higher than yesterday.
Read more: https://t.co/UNNM5g1JuN#ITCard #Covid19 #coronavirus #India pic.twitter.com/JYk0WVhOEt— IndiaToday (@IndiaToday) May 7, 2022
Australia:
COVID's death toll is soaring, but nobody seems to care?
You might want to read this.
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H/T @white_bite https://t.co/cfwpWfU7q8— Gabriel Hébert-Mysterious™ ? (@Gab_H_R) May 7, 2022
Clear signs of 5th wave in SA, the positivity ratio is as high as the previous 4 waves! Please take care and do not be fooled that a new variant is needed to cause a new wave, Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 are antigenic distinct from BA.1 as other variants were from each other. https://t.co/TuiznzC1wj
— Tulio de Oliveira (@Tuliodna) May 7, 2022
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Children get #LongCovid, too, and it can show up in unexpected ways. ~13M children have tested positive for Covid since the pandemic's start, according to the Amer. Academy of Pediatrics. Studies suggest ~2% to 10% of those children will develop #LongCovid https://t.co/fikgy94Nvx pic.twitter.com/dQ5oinY6gD
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) May 7, 2022
We've known about the potential of interferon therapy to prevent severe Covid, but finally a randomized trial of 1900 mostly vaccinated people showed a 50% reduction in need for hospitalization https://t.co/PznHzGq2er @meredithwadman @NewsfromScience
— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) May 6, 2022
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Arizona was the only state last year where vaccination rates in rural counties topped those in urban counties, according to the CDC. Public health experts say vaccine outreach and a community-first spirit among Native Americans is what made difference. https://t.co/hmPtphmbWt
— The Associated Press (@AP) May 7, 2022
One million dead: The U.S. death toll from the covid-19 pandemic will hit that unfathomable number this week, and yet there is a far larger number that reflects the true impact this virus has had on Americans over the past two years. That number is 9 million — the number of Americans who have lost spouses, parents, grandparents, siblings and children to covid.
Sociologists at Penn State and the University of Southern California came up with a “bereavement multiplier,” a way to calculate how many close relatives each covid death leaves behind and bereft. The answer, on average, is nine — not including extended family or close friends, longtime co-workers or next-door neighbors, many of whom, the study said, are deeply affected, too.
Covid quickly became the third-biggest killer of Americans, behind only heart disease and cancer, according to federal statistics for 2020. One million is how many people live in San Jose, Calif., or Austin, Tex., or in Montgomery County, Md., or Westchester County, N.Y. It’s more people than live in the six smallest states or D.C., about as many as live in Delaware or Rhode Island…
As the country marks the million milestone, these are stories of five who died — and the many others who carry on with a gaping hole in their lives…
… No government program at any level is tracking American children such as Aidan and his big brother Julius who have lost at least one primary caregiver to COVID, but researchers’ estimates put the number at over 213,000 kids.
Deep racial disparities among kids who lost at least one parent or caregiver to COVID reflect the course of a disease that has illuminated inequities in areas such as healthcare in the United States. Native American children, for instance, are four times as likely to have lost a parent to COVID than white kids.
Susan Hillis, the lead author of the first major modeling study to determine the numbers of children who lost a parent or caregiver to COVID, published last October in the journal for the American Academy of Pediatrics, said that it is crucial that hospitals, schools and churches work together to identify families who lost a caregiver so that children can be protected from neglect and other threats.
While many look forward to the end of the pandemic, families such as Aidan and Julius’s show its profound and enduring impact.
“Our ‘normal’ is not going to be like anyone else’s, because we lost someone,” said Margaret Garza, Aidan and Julius’s mother…
War for Ukraine Update 73: The Ukrainian Evacuation of Civilians from Azovstal Is Complete! Azovstal’s Defenders Are Still Holding On!
NeenerNeener
Monroe County, NY:
383 new cases yesterday. This is from the NYSDOH so it doesn’t include home tests, so it’s probably really double.
Dorothy A. Winsor
We got back into the country around 8pm yesterday. I was sick on the flight home and worried I had covid, despite the negative test I had on Friday. So I just took a home test and it’s also negative. I must have a cold or flu or something.
We had to wear masks on the two planes we took yesterday. It was interesting to see how few people wore masks on the street in France and Holland. Somehow I thought that was an American pathology
New Deal democrat
Nationwide cases are up to 72,300, and over 25% from 7 days ago, a slightly increased rate from the 7 previous days. Hospital admissions increased to 17,671, an increase of over 20% from one week before. Deaths are flat at 606, but up 40 in the past 3 days.
Elsewhere cases are rising in all regions and in all States except for AK, CO, NE, and VT.
In bellwether NJ, cases are up over 30% in the past week. In NY, they are up 18%, in contrast with an increase of 11% in the previous 7 days. The sliver of good news continues to be that in 5 of 7 upstate regions of NY, cases have peaked and are declining.
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Yes, Europe seems more done with Covid than we are.
Amir Khalid
Malaysia’s Ministry of Health reported 1,372 new Covid-19 cases yesterday, for a cumulative reported total of 4,456,736 cases. It also reported three deaths for an adjusted cumulative total of 35,579 deaths – 0.80% of the cumulative reported total, 0.76% of resolved cases.
There were 23,276 active cases yesterday, 2,241 fewer than the day before. 1,025 are in hospital. 86 confirmed cases are in ICU; of these patients, 46 confirmed cases cases are on ventilators. Meanwhile, 3,610 more patients have recovered, for a cumulative total of 4,397,881 patients recovered – 98.7% of the cumulative reported total.
1,367 new cases reported yesterday were local infections. Five new cases were imported.
The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) administered 23,115 doses of vaccine on 7th May: 4,848 first doses, 17,011 second doses, and 1,256 booster doses. The cumulative total is 70,389,427 doses administered: 27,784,905 first doses, 26,776,345 second doses, and 16,041,560 booster doses. 85.1% of the population have received their first dose, 82.0% their second dose, and 49.1% their booster dose.
Ohio Mom
At the graduation I attended yesterday, I saw ONE other person wearing a mask (besides Ohio Dad and Ohio Grandma). It was in a basketball arena and there were 500 graduates. The provost shook every one of their hands.
Every graduate got eight tickets, so I figure that was somehere around 4,000 people, with faculty, and arena staff added in.
The numbers around here are just about as low as they’ve ever been, I’m holding onto that, the fact that we’re boosted, and eyeing our stash of tests.
Wish us luck.
Brachiator
I would not have shaken hands, not even if you paid me.
In the US and around the world, people just seem to have decided that it is time to get back to normal. No matter what.
I wonder if the CDC or any other organization have been evaluating the spread of Covid in social spaces. Have we validated what constitutes good ventilation?
This information might be useful to future generations that might care more about stopping a similar pandemic.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Ohio Mom: Whoa. That would freak me out.
Nicole
I’m feeling like January all over again in NYC, as friends who didn’t catch Omicron in January are catching round 2. My playwriting group was supposed to meet in person for the first time in over 2 years and two days before the meeting, the writer who hosts said she was down with a terrible cold. She’d tested negative twice, but was feeling too ooky, and out of an abundance of caution, decided to cancel. Thank goodness she did; two days later her third test came up positive. That’s what I find so frustrating with this virus; I know so many people with symptoms who have to test more than once or twice before they get a positive result.
WereBear
@Brachiator:
This is that toxic positivity that Barbara Ehrenreich warned us about.
bjacques
@Dorothy A. Winsor: France and the Netherlands (and Belgium) have large contingents of COVID-hoaxers/anti-vaxxers (the Dutch call them “wappies”) driven by Putin-adjacent political parties (much larger in FR and BE than in NL). In NL are even larger groups of people who simply don’t care and/or are in the hospitality sector hugely dependent on tourism and making up for two lost years, and love to apply rules to other people. Kingsday, the national yard sale and pissup put the final kibosh on any desire to take any precautions at all. I’ve almost given up on it but not entirely, so we wear masks on public transport most of the time though it’s no longer required.
I’ll be 59 next month and my partner is older, so automatically in a high risk group, and we have a few more immune-compromised friends than most, so also it’s about not letting the side down. It’s also why she got her 2nd booster but I’m chafing at not being eligible though they must be going begging by now.
At least the COVID numbers are still dropping, for now, to “only” 10596 last week, down from 16054 the previous week, even after Kingsday, and 28 deaths vs 66 previously. For scale, Dutch population is just over 1/20 of the US population.
ETA: And we *still* have the occasional friend getting their ass kicked by Omicron these past few weeks. And our Russian anti-vaxxer acquaintance predictably became a Putin apologist, duly citing John Mearsheimer. Quelle surprise.
Naomi Wu’s got an excellent point, and her life story (highlighted in her Twitter feed) is very interesting and worth the 38 minutes.
Ohio Mom
Well I could hardly miss my child’s graduation. And in two weeks we leave for a big bar mitzvah in the NYC area, which has higher Covid numbers than we have here — though I guess things could change by then.
After that, I go back to hermithood.
Matt McIrvin
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
It’s really not. If anything, masking has been less popular in most of Europe than in the US. I think Spain may be an exception.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@bjacques: We were in Amsterdam on Easter Sunday. I was horrified by the mobs of unmasked people who had traveled from elsewhere to be with family. It looked like a superspreader event to me.
bjacques
@Dorothy A. Winsor: damn! We could have had a mini-BJ meetup!
Nelle
I’m thinking about the powerful social influence of the “back to normal” crowd. I was at a memorial service in a small, conservative town out in the boonies of a Plains conservative state. I was with a friend (a doctor) who told me that I was probably as safe as you can get (boosted x 2) and a week and a half past testing negative after having Covid. But when the congregation began singing, I put my mask on and, seeing that, two others did too.
Afterwards, though, I was visiting with a son-in-law of the deceased, who talked about how uncomfortable the situation was for him. He’s an epidemiologist; his mask was in his pocket. I suspect he didn’t want to upset or distract the conservative part of the family at a sensitive time by wearing the mask.
YY_Sima Qian
On 5/7 Mainland China reported 319 new domestic confirmed (141 previously asymptomatic), 4,065 new domestic asymptomatic cases, 0 domestic suspect cases, & 8 new deaths.
Guangdong Province reported 21 new domestic confirmed (2 previously asymptomatic) & 3 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 10 domestic confirmed & 5 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 168 active domestic confirmed & 36 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province. As the province does not break down recoveries by administrative divisions, I cannot track the count of active cases in administrative divisions, given the multiple simultaneous outbreaks.
At Guangxi “Autonomous” Region 1 domestic confirmed & 6 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 79 active domestic asymptomatic cases (67 at Fangchenggang & 12 at Baise) in the province.
Hunan Province did not report ant new domestic positive cases. 1 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 25 active domestic confirmed & 1 domestic asymptomatic cases in the province. As the province does not break down recoveries by administrative divisions, I cannot track the count of active cases in administrative divisions, given the multiple simultaneous outbreaks. 2 sites at Shaoyang are currently at Medium Risk.
Inner Mongolia “Autonomous” Region reported 1 new domestic confirmed case (mild), at Chifeng, a person returning from Shanghai & under centralized quarantine since arrival. 7 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 33 active domestic confirmed (32 at Manzhouli in Hulun Buir & 1 at Chifeng) cases in the province. 4 sub-districts are currently at Medium Risk.
At Tianjin Municipality there currently is 1 active domestic asymptomatic case remaining.
Shandong Province reported 1 new domestic asymptomatic case. 6 domestic confirmed & 37 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 55 active domestic confirmed cases & 483 active asymptomatic cases in the province. As not all of the administrative divisions in the province provide data on recoveries, I cannot track the count of active cases in all of the administrative divisions, given the multiple simultaneous outbreaks.
At Shanxi Province 3 domestic confirmed & 7 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 13 active domestic confirmed (all at Taiyuan) & 41 active domestic asymptomatic (all at Taiyuan) cases remaining.
Hebei Province reported 1 new domestic confirmed & 1 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 4 domestic confirmed & 44 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 10 active domestic confirmed & 345 active asymptomatic case in the province. As the province does not break down recoveries by administrative divisions, I cannot track the count of active cases in administrative divisions, given the multiple simultaneous outbreaks.
Liaoning Province reported 85 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 11 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 38 active domestic confirmed & 1,045 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province. As the province does not break down recoveries by administrative divisions, I cannot track the count of active cases in administrative divisions, given the multiple simultaneous outbreaks.
Heilongjiang Province reported 1 new domestic confirmed case. 7 domestic confirmed & 1 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 87 active domestic confirmed & 78 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
Jilin Province reported 3 new domestic confirmed (all previously asymptomatic, 1 mild & 2 moderate) & 21 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 59 domestic confirmed & 154 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. As the province does not consistently break down recoveries by confirmed & asymptomatic cases or by jurisdictions, I can no longer track the count of active case counts in the different jurisdictions.
Beijing Municipality reported 44 new domestic confirmed (40 mild & 4 moderate) & 18 new domestic asymptomatic cases. Of the 78 domestic positive cases reported between 3 PM on 5/6 & 3 PM on 5/7, 8 were from community screening, while the others are persons under centralized quarantine or residents under movement control. As the city does not break down recoveries by imported vs. domestic cases, I cannot track the count of active domestic cases there. 21 sites are currently at High Risk. 33 sites are currently at Medium Risk.
Shanghai Municipality reported 215 new domestic confirmed (135 previously asymptomatic) & 3,760 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 3,829 of the new domestic positive cases were already under quarantine & 11 via screening of persons deemed at risk of exposure. There were 8 deaths (avg. 80.6 y.o., youngest at 59 y.o. & oldest at 93 y.o., all w/ a range of underlying conditions, 1 vaccinated). 941 domestic confirmed & 9,839 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 6,965 active domestic confirmed (412 serious & 84 critical) & 65,054 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. 13 sites are currently at Medium Risk.
Hubei Province reported 1 new domestic asymptomatic case, at Enshi Prefecture, a person returning from elsewhere & under centralized quarantine since arrival. 9 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 2 active domestic confirmed (both mild, both at Wuhan) & 33 active domestic asymptomatic (13 at Wuhan, 10 at Ezhou, 4 at Huanggang, 4 at Xiangyang, & 1 each at Enshi Prefecture & Xianning) cases in the province.
Jiangsu Province reported 1 new domestic confirmed & 60 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 1 domestic confirmed & 48 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. The currently are 16 active domestic confirmed & 385 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province. As the province does not break down recoveries by administrative divisions, I cannot track the count of active cases in each administrative division, given the multiple simultaneous outbreaks.
Anhui Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. 29 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 6 active confirmed & 91 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
Zhejiang Province reported 1 new domestic confirmed (previously asymptomatic) & 27 new domestic asymptomatic cases. As the province does not break down recoveries by imported versus domestic cases, I cannot track the count of active domestic cases there.
At Fujian Province 1 domestic confirmed & 7 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 10 active domestic confirmed & 17 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province. As the province does not break down recoveries by administrative divisions, I cannot track the count of active cases in administrative divisions, given the multiple simultaneous outbreaks.
Ürumqi in Xinjiang “Autonomous” Region did not report any new domestic positive cases. 1 domestic confirmed & 15 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 20 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city.
Guizhou Province did not report any domestic positive cases. There currently are 1 active domestic confirmed (at Qiandongnan Prefecture) & 3 active domestic asymptomatic (all at Tongren) cases remaining.
Jiangxi Province reported 8 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 23 domestic confirmed & 74 asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 88 active domestic confirmed & 504 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. As the province does not break down recoveries by administrative divisions, I cannot track the count of active cases in administrative divisions, given the multiple simultaneous outbreaks.
Henan Province reported 25 new domestic confirmed & 76 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 2 domestic confirmed & 11 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 125 active domestic confirmed & 329 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province. As the province does not break down recoveries by administrative divisions, I cannot track the count of active cases in administrative divisions, given the multiple simultaneous outbreaks.
Sichuan Province reported 1 new domestic asymptomatic (at Dazhou) case, a person coming from elsewhere & under centralized quarantine. As the province does not break down recoveries by imported vs. domestic cases, I cannot track the count of active domestic cases there.
Chongqing Municipality reported 2 new domestic confirmed & 1 new domestic asymptomatic cases, all persons under centralized quarantine. 1 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 8 active domestic confirmed & 2 active domestic asymptomatic cases remaining in the city.
Qinghai Province reported 4 new domestic confirmed & 2 new domestic asymptomatic cases, all at Xining, 5 traced close contacts under centralized quarantine & 1 via community screening. 2 domestic confirmed & 2 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 14 active domestic confirmed & 6 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
At Yunnan Province 2 domestic confirmed & 11 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 2 active domestic confirmed & 56 active domestic asymptomatic cases remaining in the province. As the province does not break down recoveries by administrative divisions, I cannot track the count of active cases in administrative divisions, given the multiple simultaneous outbreaks.
Imported Cases
On 5/7, Mainland China reported 10 new imported confirmed cases (0 previously asymptomatic), 68 imported asymptomatic cases, 0 imported suspect cases:
Overall in Mainland China, 1,115 confirmed cases recovered (13 imported), 10,415 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation (52 imported) & 141 were reclassified as confirmed cases (all domestic), & 55,844 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 9,181 active confirmed cases in the country (160 imported), 533 in serious/critical condition (all domestic), 97,512 active asymptomatic cases (505 imported), 1 suspect case (imported). 416,869 traced contacts are currently under centralized quarantine.
As of 5/7, 3,352.053M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 1.119M doses in the past 24 hrs.
On 5/8 Hong Kong reported 266 new positive cases, 25 imported & 241 domestic (87 via RT-PCR & 154 from rapid antigen tests), 2 deaths (1 fully vaccinated).
On 5/8, Taiwan reported 44,361 new positive cases, 67 imported & 44,294 domestic (106 moderate & 12 serious). There were 12 new deaths (ages ranging from 60+ to 90+, actual dates of death between 4/28 & 5/5, 11 having a range of underlying conditions, 6 partially/fully vaccinated).
YY_Sima Qian
My parents reported that they are seeing a few more elderly folks wearing masks at the local Walmart, in their corner of Upstate NY. For a while they would be the only people masked, customers or staff. At least they haven’t been targeted for abuse for wearing them, or at least they have not reported so.
What is the approved timing for the 2nd booster for > 70 y.o. in the US? 4 mos. after the 1st booster, or 6? For some reason my parents are planning to inquire about their 2nd booster during their doctor’s appointment at the end of May. They are nearly 6 mos. mark to their 1st boosters. I would prefer they get boosted again ASAP.
Given the prevalence of Omicron BA.x variants in Upstate NY (& official incidence likely to be a significant under count), the lack of mitigation measures, the waning immunity from their boosters in Nov. last year, & the possibly increased immunity escape characteristics of the newest Omicron variants, I have been steeling myself for the word that one or both of them test positive. The best scenario is that they may already have had asymptomatic infection & didn’t know it. Considering their underlying conditions, that is not likely.
There is no prospect of getting them back in China any time soon. Sigh…
JR in WV
I went to our rural WV courthouse Thursday afternoon, and while there were big signs about MASKS REQUIRED on the door, the guys hanging around that door told me, “you don’t have to wear a mask if you don’t want to!” to which I replied my wife is frail, and they all nodded. I paid the vehicle property tax, checked to see that the real estate taxes were up to date (the bank’s responsibility, which they occasionally “forget) and went home.
Friday I went to the DMV service center, where maybe 25% of folks were wearing a mask. I renewed the registration on the vehicles for two years… was $100 per vehicle, as were the taxes the day before.
People wear masks when requirements are imposed, which eventually begins to lower the number of cases of Covid, until the requirements are relaxed, as if mask wearing is a huge expensive imposition. Then almost immediately the case numbers start back up again, like a metronome of sickness. People are f’ing crazy to not wear a mask when out in public.
Anne Laurie
@YY_Sima Qian: The CDC says second boosters can be done as soon as 4 months after the first, for those eligible (over 60 and/or with other health issues). I’m not seeing reports of any shortages. Maybe nag your parents to make a vaxx appointment so that they can get their shots *during* the scheduled doctor visit?
(I can’t be self-righteous, Spousal Unit & I are both in that cohort, and we’re five months out on our first booster… )
YY_Sima Qian
@Anne Laurie: Thanks! I thought it was 4 months. Will do as you suggest!