Day 59: Mask Madness

Bolsonaro continues to keep Brazil open for business, saying "We're all going to die one day." (Todos nós vamos morrer um dia.)

Business is a little different in the Czech Republic, where Aktuálně.cz reports that 680,000 masks and 28,000 respirators were seized by the government after a local company attempted to sell them to the Ministry of Health at inflated prices. The reseller obtained the masks from one Zhou Lingjian, a man allegedly "directly linked" to the government of Communist China. All PPE was seized from his warehouse, including (allegedly) some intended as humanitarian aid for Italy. How the supplies stopped in Czechia instead remains unexplained, as the border was open for such shipments the whole time. The Czech police suspect theft.

Austria will be requiring people to wear masks in grocery stores starting Wednesday (free at the door), and recommends wearing them elsewhere. The FDA has approved using an Ohio company's mask sterilization technology at full capacity (80,000 masks a day), apparently in response to the governor's criticism of their initial arbitrary restriction to 10,000 a day.

The US has reached 164,000 cases, and Italy is now over 101,000. New York at 67,000 cases is ahead of Germany (66,000). Massachusetts has sadly risen in the rankings lately and is now at 5th in the nation with 5,752 cases (up 797 or 16% from yesterday). Eight new deaths, including several of people in their 60's, brings us up to 56 deaths.

Reddit reports that your Android phone will now warn you when you cross the state line into RI, where it's still tourist hunting season. PlagueBlog recommends turning off this feature if you live on the state line.