Day 31: The Accusations Fly

The official case count is over 89,000 cases, with over 3,000 dead and over 45,000 recovered. PlagueBlog cannot vouch for the Chinese number, which exceeds 80,000 cases with 2,912 deaths. South Korea now has 4,335 cases with 26 deaths. Iran has surged to 1,501 cases with 66 deaths. Italy is still slightly ahead at 1,696 cases and 34 deaths. Germany has hit 150 cases, France 130, and Spain 120.

Portugal has finally reported cases, both males in Porto, though only one is ex Spain. The 60-year-old doctor vacationed in Italy, while the 33-year-old construction worker worked in Spain and had some connection to Valência. Scotland has also reported its first case, ex Italy.

The US now has 88 cases, but no new deaths since yesterday. CNBC and MSN report on doctors' and suspected patients' lack of access to COVID-19 tests, despite CDC claims to the contrary. The New York Times also links CDC testing restrictions to weeks of covert spread of the virus in the Pacific Northwest. In other news, the CDC once again accidentally released an infected quarantined evacuee in San Antonio, but the patient was quickly recaptured.

The Bangkok Post reports that Thailand's first death, a 35-year-old sales clerk who dealt with Chinese tourists and passed away on Saturday, did not actually have an underlying condition; his dengue fever was a misdiagnosis and his only known disease was COVID-19. He had been in hospital since January 27th, stopped testing positive for coronavirus on February 16th, and succumbed to multiple-organ failure on February 29th.

And lastly, a cool toy: Genomic epidemiology of novel coronavirus (HCoV-19)

P.S. Steve Wozniak theorizes on Twitter that he was the American Patient Zero.

P.P.S. The Washington State cluster has now brought the US death count to 6.

P.P.P.S. New Hampshire has confirmed a case, in a hospital employee, ex Italy. Rumor has it he's been working since he returned from Italy. The nationwide case count is up to 100 as of 9pm EST.