Day 47: 200k and Still Rising

In an overnight leap, worldwide coronavirus cases have passed 200,000 and reached somewhere between 203,529 (JHU CSSE) and 204,831 (WoM). Italy is over 31,000 cases with over 2,500 deaths. Iran also leapt up overnight to over 17,000 cases and over 1,100 deaths.

Also on the wrong side of South Korea are Spain (at almost 14,000 cases and over 600 dead) and Germany (over 10,000 cases but only 27 dead). Portugal (642 cases, 2 deaths) stopped trains and flights to Spain Monday night at 23:00, for at least a month.

The US is still on the right side of South Korea (though not for long) at about 7,300 cases and 116 deaths. New York has not been doing as well as Massachusetts; WoM reports 2,480 cases and 16 deaths for them. In fact, New Jersey has pushed Massachusetts into 5th place, and Florida is looking likely to overtake us soon as well. We are the only state with more than 100 cases but no deaths (out of 12).

New Hampshire is up 9 cases to 26. In Maine (32), Reddit reports that the L.L.Bean flagship store in Freeport is installing locks in preparation to lock its doors for the first time since it opened. Apparently they did close on some occasions; like Massachusetts and RI, Maine law requires retail stores to close on Thanksgiving. (PlagueBlog thinks the rest of you are animals.)

P.S. The Massachusetts numbers are out in their PDF hidey-hole. We have 38 new cases, -5 attributed to Biogen (so it's hard to say exactly where those five presumably misclassified folks went), 5 to community spread, 2 to travel, and 36 under investigation. The Commonwealth tested 377 new cases, 28 of whom were positive. The commercial labs tested 144 new cases, 10 of whom were positive. Their overall rates are now 13% and 4% respectively.

The Boston Globe reports that a swab shortage is now interfering with coronavirus testing. PlagueBlog hopes you got tested back when PlagueBlog recommended it.