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

October 9, 2020 -- The global report of new cases established a new daily record yesterday and the second highest today. The work week ends with many countries breaking their daily records of new cases: France, Russia, Czechia, the Netherlands, Ukraine, Romania, Belgium, Poland, and Morocco, while other countries almost peaked: Argentina, Great Britain, Iran, Italy, Indonesia, Spain, and Portugal. Unfortunately, many other regions are showing clear signs that the second wave will soon overtake them: Iraq, Germany, Nepal, Libya, and Columbia. The global daily average of new cases, over the last week, is 324,794, indicating the world is now likely to add 1 million new cases every third day. India's daily average over the last week is now 72,153 and, although still on a path to overtake the US top position as the most infected country, today's US report of 60,419 new cases is headed in the wrong direction and will most likely delay the crossover.

Today, the coronavirus infected 354,302 new patients while killing 5,807 people globally.

COVID-19 in the world today:

  • COVID-19 Global cases: 37,098,034 (+354,302)
  • COVID-19 Global deaths: 1,072,559 (+5,807)
  • COVID-19 Global death rate: 2.89%
  • COVID-19 Global testing*: 694,441,560 confirmed tests (+5,537,182)
  • COVID-19 Global positivity rate: 5.34%
  • COVID-19 Global single-day positivity rate: 6.37%

*: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. Also, please forgive the occasional typos.
France COVID-19 data

  • global rank: 10
  • 691,977 cases (+20,339) peak
  • 32,583 deaths (+62)
  • 12,061,094 tests (+160,999)
  • positivity rate 5.90%
Russia COVID-19 data

  • global rank: 4
  • 1,272,238 cases (+12,126) peak
  • 22,257 deaths (+201)
  • 49,656,873 tests (+507,919)
  • positivity rate 2.56%
Netherlands COVID-19 data

  • global rank: 27
  • 161,781 cases (+5,971) peak
  • 6,544 deaths (+13)
  • 2,656,731 tests
  • positivity rate 6.09%
Czechia COVID-19 data

  • global rank: 38
  • 109,374 cases (+8,617) peak
  • 905 deaths (+36)
  • 1,539,835 tests (+23,923)
  • positivity rate 7.10%
‘Rural Surge’ Propels India Toward More Covid-19 Infections Than U.S. | nytimes.com
MASLI, India — Sliding out of their rickshaw, masks on, fresh sanitizer smeared across their hands, a team of health workers approached one of the mud-walled homes in Masli, a remote village in northeast India surrounded by miles of mountainous rainforest.

“Are you Amit Deb?” they asked a lean, shirtless man standing in his yard. Mr. Deb nodded cautiously. Five days earlier, he had tested positive for the coronavirus. Now his family members needed to be tested.

They all refused.

“We can’t afford to quarantine,” explained Mr. Deb, a shopkeeper. If anyone else in his family was found positive, they would all be ordered to stay inside, which would mean even more weeks of not working, which would push the family closer to running out of food.

The medical team moved on to the next house. But they kept meeting more refusals.

The defiance of the coronavirus rules is being reflected across rural India, and it is propelling this nation’s virus caseload toward the No. 1 spot globally. Infections are rippling into every corner of this country of 1.3 billion people. The Indian news media is calling it “The Rural Surge.”

In the Indian megacities where the pandemic first hit, vigorous public awareness campaigns have left the populace mostly on guard. But when it comes to government efforts to contain the virus, rural India is resisting.

In many villages, no one is wearing masks. There is no social distancing. People are refusing to get tested and they are hiding their sick.

Hospitals are straining; in the coronavirus ward of one hospital here in the state of Tripura, insects were left to crawl over corpses, according to photos from a former government official.

In recent trips to more than a dozen rural areas spread across several states, from Tamil Nadu in the south to West Bengal in the far east, to Tripura, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh in the north, the reaction to the pandemic appeared to be completely different from that of the big cities like Delhi and Mumbai.
In the US
The US ended the day with 60,419 new cases, the highest daily report since August 7, over two months ago. Today Ohio, Indiana, and South Dakota announced their highest daily numbers since the onset of the pandemic -- North Carolina, Wisconsin, Arkansas, and Utah peaked yesterday -- while Minnesota, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Nebraska, North Dakota, Montana, Utah, and Idaho almost peaked today. Many other states (Illinois, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Alabama, Virginia, and Georgia) published numbers showing troubling spikes in their respective curve. A month ago, our national report hit a low of 27,420 daily cases. We are clearly headed in the wrong direction, with no national policy to flatten the curve.
Ohio COVID-19 data

  • national rank: 13
  • 166,146 cases (+1,835) peak
  • 5,000 deaths (+12)
  • 3,528,340 tests
  • positivity rate 4.71%
Indiana COVID-19 data

  • national rank: 21
  • 131,493 cases (+1,816) peak
  • 3,761 deaths (+19)
  • 2,276,846 tests (+30,747)
  • positivity rate 5.78%
CDC Study Details ‘Urgent Need’ to Address Coronavirus Spread Among Young Adults | usnews.com
CORONAVIRUS CASES AMONG young adults are on the rise, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said there is an "urgent need" to address the trend.

In a study released on Friday, the CDC examined 767 hotspot counties identified during June and July and found that increases in the percent of positive tests among people 24 and younger were followed by several weeks of increasing positivity rates in those aged 25 and older. The trend was particularly true in the South and West.

Making the findings even more concerning is the fact that a jump in the positivity rate of older age groups is "likely to result in more hospitalizations, severe illnesses, and deaths," according to CDC.

"There is an urgent need to address transmission among young adult populations, especially given recent increases in COVID-19 incidence among young adults," the study said.

CDC published a separate, small study on Friday that identified common drivers of behavior that might influence risk for COVID-19 exposure among young adults in Wisconsin. The list included: social or peer pressure, perceived severity of disease outcome and exposure to misinformation, conflicting messages or opposing views regarding masks.
COVID-19 in the USA

  • Cases: 7,894,339 (+60,419)
  • Deaths: 218,642 (+904)
  • Death rate: 2.77%
  • Testing: 116,445,495 individual tests (+1,101,680)
  • Positivity rate: 6.78%
  • Single-day positivity date: 5.48%
US top 5 infected states:

  1. California: 849,412 COVID-19 cases, 16,503 deaths
  2. Texas: 829,005 COVID-19 cases, 16,992 deaths
  3. Florida: 728,921 COVID-19 cases, 15,187 deaths
  4. New York: 506,890 COVID-19 cases, 33,372 deaths
  5. Georgia: 329,032 COVID-19 cases, 7,348 deaths
In California
Southern California suburban counties failing COVID-19 benchmarks for communities of color | latimes.com
A large swath of Southern California is failing to meet a new state health equity metric that ensures counties are helping poor communities of color most disproportionately affected by the coronavirus, creating new barriers to further reopening.

At least 12 counties — including four in Southern California — aren’t meeting the new metric, which is designed to ensure that test positivity rates in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods don’t significantly exceed a county’s overall rate. It measures the seven-day average positivity rate of a county’s lowest quartile based on the California Healthy Places index against the infection rate countywide.

“We all know that low-income Latino, Black and Pacific Islander Californians have been the hardest hit in this pandemic,” acting state health officer Dr. Erica Pan said during a news briefing this week.

“Our goal is to reduce disease transmission in all communities, especially those most at risk.”

Data provided from the California Department of Public Health show several counties, including Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego, have an excessive gap.

And every disparity has the potential to place the areas in two different tiers under the state’s latest four-tiered, color-coded reopening blueprint.

A county must meet a tier’s threshold for coronavirus case counts by population size, in addition to the rate of positive tests. If requirements for only one of those metrics is met, stricter guidelines apply. And if a county’s overall positivity rate differs significantly from its most disadvantaged neighborhoods, it could be held back from reopening.
  • COVID-19 California cases: 849 ,412 (+3,645)
  • COVID-19 California deaths: 16,503 (+75)
  • COVID-19 California death rate: 1.94%
  • COVID-19 California testing: 15,736,497 individual tests (+112,874)
  • COVID-19 California positivity rate: 5.40%
  • COVID-19 California single-day positivity rate: 3.23%
In the Central Valley
The Madera County Department of Public Health COVID-19 Update:

10/9/2020 COVID-19 UPDATE: Reporting 8 cases from the public and 1 from Valley State Prison (total 9 new cases) bringing the total number of reported cases to 4,748. We also regret to report 1 additional death.

Of the 4,748:
  • 373 active cases (including 8 Madera County residents hospitalized in Madera County)
  • 4,304 recovered (44 released from isolation)
  • 71 deceased

1 additional death
  • Male, 70s, underlying conditions 

Madera County is averaging 19 new cases per 100,000 residents, with 267 new cases revealed over the last 14 days. We need to get down to an average of 11 cases per day or 154 cases over 14 days to switch from purple to red.

Today, the seven local counties together confirmed 294 new infections and 6 new coronavirus deaths. The combined 7 counties passed the symbolic cumulative total of 100,000 coronavirus cases yesterday. This past week, COVID-19 infected 1,925 more local residents and killed 30 more of our neighbors. The numbers are down but still require our shared responsibility of constant vigilance. COVID-19 has killed 1,372 residents of our region since it claimed its first central valley victim, in Madera, on March 26, over 6 months ago. 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 inadequate.
COVID-19 in Madera + 6 local counties (+% is the positivity rate)

  • Mariposa: 77 cases, 2 deaths, 6,285 tests, 1.23+%
  • Merced: 9,149 cases (+19), 150 deaths, 57,446 tests, 15.93+%
  • Madera: 4,748 cases (+9), 71 deaths (+1), 62,103 tests, 7.65+%
  • Fresno: 28,972,cases (+82), 406 deaths, 307,819 tests, 9.41+%
  • Tulare: 16,794 cases (+76), 269 deaths, est. 139,950 tests, 12.00+%
  • Kings: 7,975 cases (+19), 82 deaths, 90,565 tests, 8.81+%
  • Kern: 32,830 cases (+89), 392 deaths (+5), 201,220 tests, 16.32+%

COVID-19 in the 7 counties together

  • 7 counties cases: 100,545 (+294)
  • 7 counties deaths: 1,372 (+6)
  • 7 counties death rate: 1.36%
  • 7 Counties tests: 865,388 (est.)
  • 7 Counties positivity rate: 11.62%
Keep observing the simple yet proven safety habits of physical-distancing, mask-wearing, and frequent hand-washing, that will help drive down new infections and new deaths numbers, to a level low enough so as to give us a chance to reopen our schools for onsite education and thus, reopen our economy. Nothing else will work until we have a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine.
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.