(NEW YORK) — Here’s the latest information on the COVID-19 coronavirus as of 9:30 a.m. ET.
Latest reported numbers globally per Johns Hopkins University
Global diagnosed cases: 3,772,367
Global deaths: 264,189. The United States has the most deaths of any single country, with 73,431.
Number of countries/regions: at least 187
Total patients recovered globally: 1,252,240
Latest reported numbers in the United States per Johns Hopkins University
There are at least 1,228,609 diagnosed cases in 50 states + the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam. This is more than in any other country.
U.S. deaths: at least 73,431. New York state has the greatest number of reported deaths in the U.S., with 25,623.
U.S. total patients recovered: 189,910
U.S. total people tested: 7,759,771
The greatest number of reported COVID-19 cases in the U.S. is in New York, with 323,978 confirmed cases out of a total state population of 19.5 million. That is the most reported cases than in any other single region in the world. New Jersey is next, with 131,890 reported cases out of a total population of 8.88 million.
Latest reported deaths per state
Visit https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html for the latest numbers.
School closures
For a state-by-state interactive map of current school closures, please visit the Education Week website, where numbers are updated once daily.
There are 98,277 public schools and 34,576 private schools in the U.S., according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Those schools educate almost 50.8 million public school students and 5.8 million private school students.
The latest headlines
Former CDC chair tells House hearing US COVID-19 death toll will hit 100,000 by end of May
The expert witnesses who testified before the U.S. House Wednesday in Dr. Anthony Fauci’s place, after the White House forbade him to testify, warned that the novel coronavirus could surge as states begin to reopen without adequate testing and contact tracing. “We are in a critical moment in this fight,” Dr. Caitlin Rivers, a Johns Hopkins epidemiologist, told House lawmakers. “We risk complacency in recognizing that without continued vigilance in slowing transmission, we will again create the conditions that led to us being the worst-affected country in the world.” Former CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden predicted that the U.S. death toll will hit 100,000 by the end of the month, and warned that the disease will continue to spread, and could circulate for the next several years. “The very best way to get our economy back is to control the virus, and economic stability is incredibly important to the public’s health,” he said. “It is inevitable that there will be future outbreaks. What’s not inevitable is that we continue to be so underprepared.” The warning comes as a new model out of the University of Washington forecasts close to 135,000 COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. by early August – more than double the 60,000 deaths previously forecast by other models.
Over 3.1 million more people apply for unemployment
New figures from the Labor Department this morning show 3,169,000 people applied for unemployment in the week ending May 2. This means more than 33 million people have applied for unemployment in the last seven weeks, as COVID-19 shutters businesses, resulting in layoffs and lost jobs. Bad as the news is, it’s about what economists were expecting. The 3.16 million is a decrease of 677,000 people from revised figures for the week ending April 25, which itself was revised up by 7,000, to 3.846 million. The unemployment numbers come ahead of what’s expected to be a historically bad jobs report due Friday, with some estimates declaring we could see an unemployment rate of 16%, or higher. More Americans are now unemployed than at any time since the Great Depression.
Pompeo claims “enormous evidence” COVID-19 originated in Chinese lab
A claim that the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic originated in a Chinese lab and then somehow escaped is gaining ground in the White House, despite being discredited by experts including Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease doctor. While Fauci maintains the virus “evolved in nature,” others claim the pandemic was triggered by human error. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday again declared, citing “enormous evidence” that he did not provide, that the COVID-19 pandemic was caused by a lab accident, where a human working there came into contact with the virus and spread it. He added that he agreed with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence that the virus was neither genetically modified nor manmade. Pompeo also called upon China to allow U.S. scientists or the World Health Organization into the Wuhan lab in question. The secretary condemned China for initially covering up the outbreak, saying the government silenced whistleblowers and destroyed viral samples, which caused “the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people worldwide.”
Good news!
New York town puts residents on a (voluntary) quarantine diet
Some are calling it the “quarantine 15” – as in those extra pounds some folks are gaining as they spend weeks at home with little exercise, and the sofa and snacks nearby. As WABC New York reports, that prompted Suffolk County, Long Island officials on Wednesday to unveil the details of an exercise program intended to get residents in shape and help them lose those extra pounds – or at least help prevent them from gaining any additional ones. Huntington Hospital’s Director of Bariatric Surgery Dr. David Buchin joined the county health commissioner on a Facebook Live chat, providing the details and where to find support. The town of Huntington will be the first municipality to put its 20,000 residents on the diet and exercise plan – but participation, of course, is voluntary.
ER nurse feeds the hungry during free time
Mindi Hoagey could easily be forgiven if she does nothing but chill during her time off, given that she works 12-hour shifts on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic as an emergency room nurse. But WPVI Philadelphia reports when Hoagey’s not wearing scrubs, she helps prepare and serve meals to the hungry in her Pottsdown, Pennsylvania community. Hoagey spends her mornings volunteering at a local church, which spearheads the efforts. Food is as much as passion as nursing for Hoagey, who co-owns the coffee shop Honey’s Homebrewed Café with her sister and puts in hours there as well. William Mabery, who owns Flavor’s Deli, next to the coffee shop, calls Hoagey “Superwoman.”
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