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

August 20, 2020 -- The relentlessly aggressive spread of the virus, in India and everywhere else in the world, has produced a near record day of 290,027 new infections worldwide. India has now been leading our pale blue dot for 12 straight days, with the largest daily updates of new cases, and is now inching towards 70,000 newly confirmed coronavirus infections every day. Many other countries set new records today, as indicated below with graphs and articles, which you can fully read and download by clicking on the READ MORE links and all the images featured in this daily update. Particularly poignant is the unravelling story from Beirut, where the aftermath of the devastating explosion we all saw two weeks ago has accelerated the COVID-19 spread in the small country of Lebanon. As mentioned yesterday, the second wave is hitting Europe’s largest countries, although the local medical infrastructures are now far better prepared to deal with the new aggression, and the local authorities are ready to implement the mitigating measures they know have worked to flatten their respective epidemiological curves earlier in the year.

  • COVID-19 Global cases: 22,854,925 (+290,027)
  • COVID-19 Global deaths: 796,957 (+6,240)
  • COVID-19 Global death rate: 3.49%
  • COVID-19 Global testing: 403,110,215 confirmed tests (+3,804,790)
  • COVID-19 Global positivity rate: 5.66%
  • COVID-19 Global single-day positivity date: 6.88%

*: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.
Ukraine COVID-19 data

  • Global rank: 30
  • 98,537 cases (+2,134) PEAK
  • 2,184 deaths (+40) PEAK
  • 1,356,698 tests (+21,698)
  • Positivity rate: 7.26%
Ethiopia COVID-19 data

  • Global rank: 60
  • 35,836 cases (+1,778) PEAK
  • 620 deaths (+20)
  • 694,093 tests (+21,456)
  • Positivity rate: 5.16%
Argentina COVID-19 data

  • Global rank: 13
  • 320,884 cases (+8,225) PEAK
  • 6,517 deaths (+187)
  • 1,030,992 tests (+18,013)
  • Positivity rate: 31.12%
Bolivia COVID-19 data

  • Global rank: 28
  • 107,081 cases (+2031) PEAK
  • 4,294 deaths (+61)
  • 223,123 tests (+872)
  • Positivity rate: 47.99%

COVID-19 cases in Beirut are climbing after the devastating explosion there killed nearly 200 people and injured thousands | businessinsider.com
Lebanon's health minister called for a two-week lockdown in the country after it registered a record number of coronavirus cases, almost two weeks after an explosion killed almost 200 people and injured several thousand in Beirut, The Wall Street Journal reported. 

On Monday, the country registered a record 439 cases. However, health facilities in the country's capital Beirut are overburdened and in some cases damaged after the blast. 

"We declare today a state of general alert and we need a brave decision to close (the country) for two weeks," Hamad Hassan told Voice of Lebanon radio, according to Reuters... READ MORE
Lebanon COVID-19 data

  • Global rank: 84
  • 10,952 cases (+605) PEAK
Lebanon COVID-19 data

  • 113 deaths (+4)
  • 443,709 tests (+6,340)
  • Positivity rate: 2.47%
In the US
How miscommunication and selfishness hampered America’s COVID-19 response | usatoday.com

COVID-19 has scrambled the meaning of American exceptionalism.

For a century or more, the United States has been a beacon of hope and strength to the rest of the world. But its response to the pandemic, many public health experts say, has been uniquely hapless, ineffective, undisciplined and selfish. By some measures, the United States has handled the health crisis as badly as any country has.

Although the United States represents only 4% of the world’s population, it accounts for a quarter of all COVID-19 cases and 22% of all deaths.

The country whose military and economic might powered a victory in the Second World War, and whose confidence and technological wizardry planted the first human being on the moon, now finds itself as a reverse role model during the worst public health crisis in a century... READ MORE

  • COVID-19 USA cases: 5,745,721 (+44,790)
  • COVID-19 USA deaths: 177,394 (+1,060)
  • COVID-19 USA death rate: 3.09%
  • COVID-19 USA testing: 73,847,976 individual tests (+732,267)
  • COVID-19 USA positivity rate: 7.78%
  • COVID-19 USA single-day positivity date: 6.12%
US top 5 infected states:

  1. California: 653,248 COVID-19 cases, 11,808 deaths
  2. Texas: 589,857 COVID-19 cases, 10,667 deaths
  3. Florida: 588,602 COVID-19 cases, 10,052 deaths
  4. New York: 458,274 COVID-19 cases, 32,937 deaths
  5. Georgia: 246,741 COVID-19 cases, 4,959 deaths
In California
California's Wildfire and Covid-19 Disasters Just Collided | wired.com
YOU’D BE HARD-PRESSED to dream up a nastier confluence of crises besieging California right now. Over the weekend, Tropical Storm Fausto propelled moisture from off the coast of Baja California up into the Bay Area, spawning rare summer thunderstorms. At the same time, the region has been baking under an intense heat wave that has desiccated vegetation, which all too easily combusted when those thunderstorms rolled through. Since Monday, almost 400 wildfires have broken out, most of them sparked by lightning. Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated across Northern California, and 350,000 acres have burned so far. Overextended fire crews have contained very little of it thus far, as still more wildfires continue to ignite across the state.

All of this is happening during a pandemic that has killed almost 12,000 Californians, forcing people to remain sheltered in place at home. And to make matters even worse, in the middle of a heat wave, they can’t open their windows because air quality is now astonishingly bad as smoke continues to pour into the Bay Area. (Witness the awfulness in real time with this map.)... READ MORE
  • COVID-19 California cases: 653,248 (+6,039)
  • COVID-19 California deaths: 11,808 (+122)
  • COVID-19 California death rate: 1.81%
  • COVID-19 California testing: 10,227,966 individual tests (+87,283)
  • COVID-19 California positivity rate: 6.39%
  • COVID-19 California single-day positivity rate: 6.92%
In the Central Valley
The Madera County Department of Public Health COVID-19 Update:

8/20/2020 COVID-19 UPDATE: Reporting 42 new cases bringing the total number of reported cases to 3,278. We also regret to report 2 additional deaths.
Of the 3,278:
  • 751 active case (including 21 Madera County residents hospitalized in Madera County) 
  • 2,478 recovered (56 released from isolation) 
  • 49 deceased

2 additional death)
  • Female, 70s, underlying conditions
  • Male, 60s, no underlying conditions

Today, the local counties together confirmed 958 new infections and 6 new coronavirus deaths (in Merced, Kern, Kings, and Madera counties).

We are still on the ascent of the spread's epidemiological graph and have yet to flatten our local curve. Our friends and neighbors are needlessly dying, many families are suffering. Science and the courage to follow its logic will solve this pandemic, any other discourse is useless.
COVID-19 in Madera + 6 local counties (+% is the positivity rate)

  • Mariposa: 69 cases, 2 deaths, 4,574 tests, 1.51+%
  • Merced: 7,334 cases (+105), 99 deaths (+2), 37,791 tests, 19.41+%
  • Madera: 3,278 cases (+42), 49 deaths (+2), 34,395 tests, 9.53+%
  • Fresno: 22,167 cases (+369), 205 deaths, 173,029 tests, 12.81+%
  • Tulare: 13,022 cases (+186), 208 deaths, est. 93,014 tests, 14.00+%
  • Kings: 5,631 cases (+62), 68 deaths (+1), 33,686 tests, 16.72+%
  • Kern: 27,378 cases (+194), 229 deaths (+1), 157,821 tests, 17.35+%

COVID-19 in the 7 counties together

  • 7 counties cases: 78,879 (+956)
  • 7 counties deaths: 860 (+6)
  • 7 counties death rate: 1.09%
  • 7 Counties tests: 534,310 (est.)
  • 7 Counties positivity rate: 14.76%
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.