Day 58: Ash Lines and Riots

Today's numbers are down; Sunday seems to be the state lab's day of rest, and we'll surely get another Monday leap. Massachusetts now has 4955 cases, up 698 (16%) from yesterday, with 4 new deaths (all of persons over 70). Middlesex has retaken the lead with 981 cases as opposed to Suffolk County's 940. Essex has pulled ahead of Norfolk, 570–548. Quest tested 2,000 more people, while the state lab tested 2.

In Maryland, a man was arrested for inadequate social distancing outdoors. People seem to be smuggling video out of New York hospitals to the New York Times. If you want to know when your state will reach Peak New York, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington has projections for peak hospital demand (including how many hospital and ICU beds your state actually has). Just select your state from the dropdown to read 'em and weep.

There's also a new kid on the case-counting block, covidly.com, which makes nice graphs but doesn't seem to be updating in real time. Over on worldometers, the pandemic has already hit 718,000 cases with well over 33,000 deaths. Italy is nearing 100,000 cases. Spain is close to pulling ahead of China in cases, and is second only to Italy in deaths, if you believe China's numbers.

PlagueBlog's faith in China's numbers, if it existed at all, would be shaken from news out of Wuhan of thousands of people queueing up at funeral homes for urns of their relative's ashes. Urn counts have been estimated at 45,000, far in excess of the nation's official death toll of 3,300. Pictures and video of the ash lines posted to social media have been censored.

The Sun also reported rioting when residents of Hubei discovered their quarantine wasn't as over as they thought it was: they're still not allowed to travel around China.

P.S. After Cuomo threatened to sue, Rhode Island extended tourist hunting season to all out-of-staters. Those Massachusetts folks with houses straddling the state line should exercise caution when entering their living rooms.