Day 39: Don't Come Back

Coronavirus cases have now exceeded 116,000, with over 4,000 dead and 64,000 recovered. Italy now leads the non-Chinese pack at over 9,000 cases with 463 dead, and has suspended mortgage payments. Next up is Iran with over 8,000 cases, while South Korea is only slightly above 7,500. Spain is over 1,600, France 1,400, and Germany 1,200. Austria (157 cases) has restricted public gatherings.

For the US, Johns Hopkins calls us at 761 cases now (BNO says 717), with 27 deaths (2 in California, 2 in Florida, and the remainder in Washington State). Testing is ongoing at the Life Care Center of Kirkland, WA, which once had 120 residents (13 to 19 of whom died from coronavirus, depending on who's counting and how recently) but now has less than 60. Of the residents, 31 tested positive, 1 negative, 3 inconclusive, and 20 are pending. Uninfected residents will be moved elsewhere. Apparently there aren't enough test kits for the 65 symptomatic staff members.

The CPAC super-contacter came into contact with but did not infect the President's chief of staff, who is self-quarantining anyway. On the other end of the social spectrum, Fox News reports the city of Detroit is turning the water back on for some non-payers for a $25 fee (possibly waived) and $25 a month, in order to encourage hand washing. PlagueBlog wonders how much the non-payers owe that that plan sounded reasonable to someone, and how it is that people are allowed to live on the books in homes that are unfit for occupancy.

Here in Massachusetts, the gift of the Biogen conference just keeps on giving. If you know where to look, you can get our real case count (41, as of yesterday) broken down by Biogen-did-it, sex, hospitalization status, and county. For those of you unfamiliar with this cesspool of germs the area, Middlesex, Norfolk, and Suffolk County are the Greater Boston area and account for 35 of the cases.) We're currently at 32 Biogen cases, 4 travel-related cases (I'm guessing the one Chinese student and 3 ex Italy), and 5 that they're still investigating (maybe-Biogen-did-it).

On the Plague Ship front, the Straits Times reports on Germ Boat #9, the Costa Fortuna, which successfully docked in Singapore and passengers were allowed off, after having been refused at several Asian ports along their itinerary and having prompted Malaysia to ban cruise ships (apparently due to some healthy Italian passengers). Its next cruise, set to end in Italy, has been cancelled.

Time reports on a new one, Germ Boat #10, another Princess Cruises ship, the Caribbean Princess, also with crew off an infected ship (two of them, presumably off the previous cruise of the Grand Princess, though the papers seem to be having trouble keeping track). The CDC got involved and issued a no-sail order; the passengers are trapped aboard for the moment. The Grand Princess herself (#6) safely docked in Oakland, CA yesterday, though not all passengers disembarked then. Today's news is that passengers are already suing from aboard ship. (PlagueBlog recommends that you disembark from the death trap first, then sue.)

A 24-year-old Vietnamese woman (not to be confused with the jet-setting infected Vietnamese fashion model) returned to Vietnam after being refused testing in London. She tested positive there, becoming Vietnam's "Patient 32". It's not clear she's ex London, though, because she probably caught it from "Patient 17", another Vietnamese visitor to London who had also visited Italy and France (and quite possibly the jet setter or her equally-infected sister).

Local cancellations: Yesterday, Amherst College led the Mass pack by announcing they're going online-only after spring break. (The other four colleges announced plans to keep tabs on the situation, except for UMass Amherst, which says it formed a task force.) Today Harvard joined in. BIDA dances are cancelled through March. Balkan Music Night is also cancelled.

P.S. Channel 10 reports that Dunkies will no longer be refilling reusable coffee cups. PlagueBlog awaits Starbucks' announcement that they'll be creaming your coffee themselves like a real coffee shop, so you don't have to touch the same cream pitcher every other yuppie in town has touched today.

P.P.S. Our governor came home from vacation to declare a state of emergency (or, as PlagueBlog prefers to put it, a Commonwealth of Emergency), perhaps due to our 51 new cases, for a total of 92, 70 from Biogen alone (see this MSN article for details of the dinner and two conferences involved), and 18 untraced. Rhode Island (which is actually a state) and Ohio declared theirs yesterday.

P.P.P.S. The US has hit 1,000 cases, with 30 deaths. The extra deaths are the first New Jersey death, a travel-related case/death in South Dakota, and more deaths in Washington State. Also, MIT has cancelled school for the remainder of the year starting Monday and is sending all students home this coming weekend unless they can prove their home country is more of a basket-case than ours. Facebook and Google have ordered all their North American employees to work from home.