Our Response to COVID-19: Information
Globally
Good evening,

July 20, 2020 -- Tomorrow, the world will pass the symbolic mark of 15 million infections, with 4 million located in the United States. Monday was the 13th out of the last 14 days with a daily global report of over 200,000 infections, however it was 40,000 cases lower than the high watermark established last week. India peaked with 40,243 new COVID-19 cases in one day, yesterday, and ended Monday slightly lower with 36,810 new infections. Russia released its first daily report (+5,940) below 6,000 for the first time since April 29, almost three months ago. Brazil's numbers are also indicating a slow down, but, as noted last week, the country's testing data, which had been consistently released daily, has only been updated twice in the last 10 days. Peru, Mexico, and South Africa are still exhibiting aggressive spread while Chile, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia have managed to establish sustained downward trends.
  • COVID-19 Global cases: 14,850,443 (+212,074)
  • COVID-19 Global deaths: 613,139 (+4,304)
  • COVID-19 Global death rate: 4.13%
  • COVID-19 Global tests* (est.): 296,830,146 (+3,451,817) 
  • COVID-19 Global positivity rate: 5.00%
  • COVID-19 Global single-day positivity rate: 6.14%

*:incomplete data set
Tip: click on any of the graphs for larger and clearer images and click on READ MORE to view the complete articles.

Note: Please forgive the occasional typos. I write these reports at the end of the work day and I have seen them creep in, undetected by my tired evening eyes. I hope they do not bother you as much as they annoy me.
In the US
  • COVID-19 USA cases: 3,960,247 (+61,697)
  • COVID-19 USA deaths: 143,826 (+537)
  • COVID-19 USA death rate: 3.63%
  • COVID-19 USA testing: 49,161,907 individual tests (+820,172)
  • COVID-19 USA positivity rate: 8.06%
  • COVID-19 USA single-day positivity date: 7.52%

The United States COVID-19 daily infections at its lowest in 9 days, but still above 60,000. Tomorrow, the US will have confirmed 4 Million infections.

Although very few states announced one-day infections records today, many released near peak reports and an increasing number of states are showing mild yet sustained daily case count increases that could eventually lead to new records, as is clearly illustrated in the two graphs below (Louisiana and Kansas). Other states to watch are Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Illinois, for their similar upward trends, while other states are still exhibiting high growth: North Carolina, South Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Georgia. The four largest ongoing hot spots: California, Texas, Arizona, and Florida are showing encouraging signs of slowing down the explosion of cases they had been suffering for a solid month. Also noteworthy, Georgia overtook Arizona's 7th national infections rank today.
Louisiana data:

  • 94,892 cases (+3,186) PEAK
  • 3,576 deaths (+31)
  • death rate: 3.77%
  • 1 102 925 tests
  • positivity rate: 8.60%
  • 1 day positivity rate: 9.48%
Kansas data:

  • 23,482 cases (+990) PEAK
  • 310 deaths
  • death rate: 1.32%
  • 261,531 tests
  • positivity rate: 8.97%
  • 1 day positivity rate: N/A
In California
Florida COVID-19 cases soar again, California sees surge stabilize
Source: reuters.com
The coronavirus pandemic raged in Florida on Monday as the state reported more than 10,000 new infections for a sixth day in a row, but California saw improvement, with cases and hospitalizations beginning to stabilize after a surge.

Florida has become the epicenter of the latest COVID-19 surge, prompting the state’s teachers union to sue Republican Governor Ron DeSantis over his plan to reopen schools for in-class instruction.

In California, which emerged as another coronavirus hotspot in July, Governor Gavin Newsom said new infections, hospitalizations and intensive care unit admissions were all still rising in the nation’s most populous state but not nearly at the pace of recent weeks.
“We are seeing a reduction in the rate of growth but a rate of growth nonetheless,” Newsom, a Democrat, said at a briefing in Sacramento.

“Hospitalizations and ICU (admissions) continue to be cause of concern in this state. That’s why we want everybody to double down on what we’ve been doing,” the governor said.

Teams from the Federal Emergency Management Agency arrived to pitch in at strapped Southern California hospitals.

California ends Monday with fewer than 8,000 new daily cases for the first time in 9 days. Tomorrow California with have confirmed over 400,000 coronavirus infections
  • COVID-19 California cases: 398,807 (+7,723)
  • COVID-19 California deaths: 7,761 (+48)
  • COVID-19 California death rate: 1.95%
  • COVID-19 California testing: 6,414,321 individual tests (+127,469)
  • COVID-19 California positivity rate: 6.22%
  • COVID-19 California single-day positivity rate: 6.06%
In the Central Valley
Today, the Madera County Department of Public Health announced this evening that 272 Madera residents had been confirmed infected with COVID-19 over the weekend: 103 people on Friday (a new peak), 86 on Saturday, and 83 on Sunday (yesterday). Also the virus killed two men in Madera over the weekend.

All the counties have added cases this weekend, but Kern County stands apart with a huge, dizzying spike of 2,001 new cases in the last three days: 415 announced Saturday, 719 Sunday, and 783 today (see Kern County graph).

The graphs below clearly indicate a sudden acceleration of the spread in the California Central Valley, and particularly in Kern, Madera, Merced counties.

The Fresno county website reported 685 new cases for the last two days, which, hopefully will be properly parsed out in tomorrow's report with daily details for the last few days since the county's Friday report.
Madera + 6 local counties

  • COVID-19 Mariposa: 38 cases (+1), 1 death, 3,128 tests, 1.21 +% (positivity rate)
  • COVID-19 Merced: 2,694 cases (+118), 22 deaths (+7), 23,467 tests, 11.48 +%
  • COVID-19 Madera: 1,451 cases (+83), 13 deaths (+2), 14,773 tests, 9.82+%
  • COVID-19 Fresno: 10,639 cases (+685), 100 deaths, 93,404 tests, 10.24 +%
  • COVID-19 Tulare: 6,896 cases (+213), 167 deaths (+2), est. 57,730 tests, 12.60 +%
  • COVID-19 Kings: 3,280 cases (+33), 41 deaths, 22,490 tests, 14.58 +%
  • COVID-19 Kern: 9,234 cases (+787), 105 deaths, 102,052 tests, 9.05 +%

7 counties together

  • COVID-19 7 counties cases: 34,232 cases (+1,837)
  • COVID-19 7 counties deaths: 449 deaths (+9)
  • COVID-19 7 counties death rate: 1.31%
  • COVID-19 7 Counties tests: 314,044 (est.)
  • COVID-19 7 Counties positivity rate: 10.90%
From our hearts to yours,

Fredo and Renee Martin
Workingarts Marketing, inc.
+1-559-662-1119

PS: We welcome comments and questions. If you wish to review previous reports, we now host past issues here.