Day 200: American American Minks

The world is at 22 1/4 million cases. Sweden snuck past China a couple of days ago, but Panama is still behind. In New Zealand, some pretty sketchy rumors allege that the suspect cold storage facility has been cleared of direct involvement in the outbreak. A new patient seems to be in the works for the main cluster, and genomic data has identified a second strain among the 17 patients in the current outbreak. The second strain seems to have been traced already to a isolation facility for imported cases where the corresponding patient worked, though the route of transmission remains unknown.

In the US, three million people are now recovered from coronavirus. Despite a general slowdown of cases, Arizona has crept past New Jersey to the #7 spot. Massachusetts' cases are up a fifth of a percentage point again today, not to brag.

The Washington Post reports mink at two mink farms in Utah have tested positive for coronavirus, the first cases in American mink (Neovison vison) in the US. The testing was performed posthumously after “unusually large numbers of mink died at the farms,” and five deceased mink were found to have been infected. The suspected route of infection is from infected human farmworkers to the mink. No neovisicide is planned for the remaining animals, as the US is a civilized country. The article notes that the US mink industry has also been suffering from lack of demand from China, apparently due in some unspecified way to coronavirus travel restrictions.