Subscribe!
Coronavirus Update Today – April 7, 2020
(Moment of joy, today – watch the Cardi Brothers read the Cat in the Hat, below…)
NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL
Georgia signs stay at home policy – then opens the beaches, and hotels can stay open – much to the city’s leadership’s opposition
Long Beach, CA is considering using the Queen Mary as some type of medical facility as it battles the spread of the coronavirus, officials say.
CNN’s Brooke Baldwin Tests Positive for Novel Coronavirus
Fox News is targeting May 4 as a possible return back into its New York and Washington, D.C. offices
SBA system struggling to process loans – computer system down for tweaking most of yesterday
U.S. Army places temporary hold on sending new recruits to basic training
Fly fishing company, The Perfect Cast, is now making hospital gowns
MLB under discussion to play all games in Arizona
USNS Comfort staff member tests positive as ship is turned into accepting positive patients
NBC reporter Kate Snow is caring for her husband who is ill with covid-19
Boris Johnson is now in Intensive Care
Key Coronavirus Model Now Predicts Fewer U.S. Deaths will result than predicted – several articles have started to appear indicating the modeling may be over-estimated for most parts of the country – except for the hot spots such as New York City, New Orleans, etc.
President’s Press Conference
President Trump sent best wishes to British PM Boris Johnson who is now in intensive care – and therapeutic specialists have been sent over to England to see what they can do to help.
USNS Comfort will be used for Covid-19 patients from NY and NJ
2,900 beds will be in place tomorrow at the Javits Center – manned by military
22 Field Hospitals in 18 States being built
Over 8,000 ventilators have been distributed
RHODE ISLAND & VICINITY
CVS opens rapid Covid-19 Test site at Twin River, Lincoln. Must have referral OR complete an online questionnaire. Test is 2-30 minutes and is front of nose, using Abbott
RI is moving towards a covid-19 positive grouping of nursing home patients – moving some around so 1 or more facilities can be specially equipped to care just for patients who are positive. However, we are not planning on having COVID-19 negative residents moved out of any facilities. That is a matter of patient/resident choice.
Harrington Hall (Crossroads) Homeless Shelter, Cranston – staff member in hospital with coronavirus. More to come on homeless population at the facility. Crossroads has also requested assistance to provide testing for all Harrington Hall staff, as well as any individuals who have stayed at Harrington Hall who had direct contact with this employee. Anyone who came into direct, face-to-face contact with this staff member will be directed to self-quarantine for 14 days. Through the state, Crossroads has arrangements in place with a local hotel for any clients who need to self-quarantine. Additionally, over the weekend and at Crossroad’s request, the state delivered large tents to house 64 men and 25 females for emergency shelter. The tents will allow more physical distancing. Crossroads began placing individuals in those beds.
RIPTA continues on a regular schedule
Stop & Shop is donating fresh meals to medical first responders in hospitals in Greater NYC and Boston that are produced in Rhode Island. They include pre-packaged sandwiches, salads, and entrees. They will be expanding into Rhode Island, and have made a $100,000 donation to the Rhode Island Community Food Bank.
Massachusetts has increased their number of DLT staff from 50 to 300 and again to 550 – RI has rearranged some state workers to work on RIDLT claims and phone calls.
Massachusetts had risen by 29 cases to 260, up from 231 the day before. The number of confirmed coronavirus cases rose by 1,337 to 13,837 – a total of 76,429 people had been tested, up from 71,937.
IHME Modeling Data
The website IHME is The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), and is an independent global health research center at the University of Washington. Predictive models of numbers help prepare for hospital beds, personnel, ICU, and ventilator needs. Updated on April 5th, the site says: “we now project that a total of 140,823 hospital beds (estimate range of 73,390 to 284,569) could be needed on that day. In contrast, our April 2 release projected 262,092 total hospital beds (estimate range of 123,885 to 417,672) could be needed to support COVID-19 patients. Today’s update also suggests lower levels of predicted need for ICU beds and invasive ventilators than previous model estimates; however, their prediction differences are far less pronounced than what we now see for total hospital beds.”
Rhode Island Modeling
Each state has modeling data. There is good news as some projections have been lowered – along with this caveat: Massive Infusion of New Data Informs Estimates Pandemic’s trajectory would change – and dramatically for the worse – if people ease up on social distancing
Here is Rhode Island’s which comes with a note that 13 states still use “average curves” for their prediction fits. Daily projection updates for these states are less stable day-to-day. This is because uncertainty (the range) is much higher in the absence of more data. These 13 states are Alaska, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
A wealth of data is available at: http://www.healthdata.org/
Governor’s Press Conference
2 more deaths – 27 deaths – 160 new cases – 1,082 total. 109 people in hospital
Reminds us to keep our contact tracing journal to give to the RIDOH when you get sick.
Announcing the CVS testing program for rapid testing
Face mask – everyone should cover their nose and mouth with cloth – Dr. takes out an N95 respirator to show TV audience. As long as you cover your nose and mouth.
Peak time changed to late April to mid May
Cell phone tracking? Yes – publicly available info about people’s cell phones. Average RIslander moving more than a few miles a day.
Donation of 208,000 face masks from Rhode Island’s Chinese-American Community
COVID-19 Data Update
The Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) announced today that Rhode Island has 160 new cases of COVID-19. This brings Rhode Island’s count to 1,082. RIDOH also announced two additional COVID-19 assoc
Moment of Joy – The Cardi Brothers read “The Cat in the Hat” – join them at https://www.cardis.com/pages/nirope-story-time for Story Time – and there are mask-making patterns on the site, too.