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

October 13, 2020 -- Although India and Brazil, respectively ranked second and third in total infections, appear to have bent their epidemiological curve, 4th ranked Russia reached a new high today and the top ranked US is showing a renewed aggressive spread, particularly in the middle of the country, as illustrated in the US map featured below. The sharp reduction of reported numbers from Brazil and India did not slow the global expansion, as many countries reached near peaks today: the UK, Iran, Italy, Indonesia, Ukraine, Romania, Poland, Czechia, Morocco, Kuwait, Portugal, and Lebanon, or published large numbers in France, Belgium Germany and Iraq. Russia had its worst day in both daily totals of new cases and new deaths since the start of the pandemic. Today, the coronavirus infected 316,903 new patients while killing 5,353 people globally.

COVID-19 in the world today:

  • COVID-19 Global cases: 38,352,113 (+316,903)
  • COVID-19 Global deaths: 1,090,668 (+5,353)
  • COVID-19 Global death rate: 2,84%
  • COVID-19 Global testing*: 713,297,262 confirmed tests (+4,491,481)
  • COVID-19 Global positivity rate: 5.38%
  • COVID-19 Global single-day positivity rate: 6.97%

*: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.
Russia COVID-19 data

  • global rank: 4
  • 1,326,178 cases (+13,868) peak
  • 22,966 deaths (+244) peak
  • 51,364,269 tests (+172,960)
  • positivity rate 2.58%
Great Britain COVID-19 data

  • global rank: 12
  • 634,920 cases (+17,234) peak
  • 43,018 deaths (+143)
  • 28,055,923 tests (+224,180)
  • positivity rate 2.26%
Netherlands COVID-19 data

  • global rank: 26
  • 188,876 cases (+7,378) peak
  • 6,631 deaths (+35)
  • 2,872,319 tests
  • positivity rate 6.58%
Canada COVID-19 data

  • global rank: 27
  • 186,881 cases (+4,042) peak
  • 9,654 deaths (+27)
  • 8,269,676 tests (+78,074)
  • positivity rate 2.26%
What you need to know about coronavirus on Tuesday, October 13 | cnn.com
(CNN) While the Asia-Pacific region treads water until a coronavirus vaccine is found, parts of the West are drowning as a second wave firmly establishes itself in Europe.

Life is closer to normal in the Asia-Pacific region thanks to the basic lessons of epidemiology: clear communication, quarantines, border controls, aggressive testing and contact tracing, Tara John writes.

Meanwhile, Europe is now reporting more daily infections than the United States, Brazil, or India -- the countries that have been driving the global case count for months -- as public apathy grows towards coronavirus guidelines.

In the UK, newly released documents show the government ignored its own scientists, who three weeks ago suggested considering a short "circuit-breaker" lockdown to bring infection levels down. There are now more patients in hospital with Covid-19 in England than there were in March.

After failing to act early, many European leaders have now been forced to take drastic action, which will inevitably damage their economies. France and Spain tightened restrictions in major cities. The German city of Stuttgart has called in the military for help in combating the virus.

The Czech Republic went into a lockdown overnight, with schools and restaurants forced to shut down. The country's fate is a cautionary tale: the Czechs managed to squash the spring epidemic before it even started, never truly experiencing the horrific consequences of the virus. The early success led to a full reopening during the summer. When infections began to rise in the fall, the country's populist government was reluctant to act. With an election on the horizon, it put the economy and the mood of the voters first.
In the US
The US ended the day with 51,353 new cases, slightly below the new daily average of 51,739 observed over the last seven days which is 5,824 more new daily cases than the average from the previous seven days. Today Wisconsin announced its highest daily number of new cases and new deaths since the onset of the pandemic, while Ohio, Indiana, Minnesota, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania released near peak numbers and Illinois, Tennessee, Virginia, Michigan, Utah, North and South Dakota as well as Utah published numbers showing troubling spikes in their respective curve. Five weeks ago our national daily total reported 27,420 daily cases, almost half of the new daily average.
Wisconsin COVID-19 data

  • national rank: 17
  • 155,571 cases (+3,279) peak
  • 1,712,425 tests
  • positivity rate 9.08%
Wisconsin COVID-19 data

  • national rank: 17
  • 1,508 deaths (+34) peak
  • 1,712,425 tests
  • positivity rate 9.08%
California 'Strongly Discourages' Trick-Or-Treating Amid COVID-19 | patch.com
UC San Diego on Tuesday put its COVID-19 vaccine trial in National City on hold.

The trial was supposed to begin Tuesday in National City’s El Toyon Park, but vaccine maker Johnson & Johnson put the study on hold because one participant from the global study developing an unexplained illness.

Dr. Susan Little, UC San Diego’s principal investigator for the Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine trial, said these incidents are fairly common.

“It simply means that we are waiting for safety regulators to review the event that occurred,” she said, “to see if the event is serious enough to wait and do a more thorough evaluation, or reactivate the trial and restart enrolling.”

Johnson & Johnson isn’t disclosing the nature of the illness that struck a participant in the global study.

The company learned of the patient's illness on Sunday and disclosed the information to the public on Monday night.

A spokesperson for the company said they don’t yet know whether that person received their experimental vaccine or a placebo shot.

“Pauses occur all the time, during large phase three clinical trials.” Little said. “This is a trial of 60,000 individuals, so it wouldn't be unusual for another pause to occur.”

The pause is at least the second such hold to occur for several COVID-19 vaccines that have reached large-scale final tests in the U.S.

National City was chosen as the location for the local vaccine trial as it has been one of the hardest-hit neighborhoods in San Diego County.

Once cleared to restart the study, National City Mayor Alejandra Sotelo-Solis says she hopes to participate to be a part of a solution to a COVID-19 vaccine.

“I have submitted my name and my application for this COVID-19 trial because I believe it's part of being a good leader,” Sotelo-Solis said.

Johnson & Johnson plans to recruit up to 60,000 participants around the world to assess their COVID-19 vaccine over the next two years.
COVID-19 in the USA

  • Cases: 8,089,929 (+51,353)
  • Deaths: 220,827 (+809)
  • Death rate: 2.73%
  • Testing: 120,410,022 individual tests (+912,398)
  • Positivity rate: 6.72%
  • Single-day positivity date: 5.63%
US top 5 infected states:

  1. California: 862,124 COVID-19 cases, 16,656 deaths
  2. Texas: 845,537 COVID-19 cases, 17,181 deaths
  3. Florida: 738,749 COVID-19 cases, 15,534 deaths
  4. New York: 512,152 COVID-19 cases, 33,403 deaths
  5. Georgia: 333,304 COVID-19 cases, 7,454 deaths
In California
California 'Strongly Discourages' Trick-Or-Treating Amid COVID-19| patch.com
CALIFORNIA — The Golden State released official recommendations on how families should celebrate Halloween and Día de los Muertos Tuesday. Trick-or-treating was "strongly discouraged" in California due to the widespread threat of COVID-19.

The new guidelines released by the state Tuesday presents suggestions on how to enjoy some traditions without gathering with others or mixing households.

Instead of trick-or-treating, public health officials are advising families to move Halloween activities online or host spooky celebrations that only include members of the same household, nixing the door to door exposure that candy collecting could present.

"COVID-19 continues to pose an important risk, as we say time and time again, so some of the traditional Halloween celebrations such as parties, door-to-door trick-or-treating, we know pose a high risk of spreading COVID, and are therefore strongly discouraged," Ghaly said Tuesday afternoon a news conference. "We suggest families, given this, should plan now on safer alternatives."

Although California's COVID-19 positivity rate, 2.6 percent, is significantly lower than it was in the summer or even last month, officials are still urging residents to keep up the momentum as cases plateau in the state.

Will families be penalized or in subject to enforcement if they choose to trick-or-treat anyway? Ghaly said "absolutely not," according to the Los Angeles Times.

But the Halloween tradition, he said, could easily spread virus.

"The whole act of going door to door in groups, ringing doorbells, digging into buckets of delicious candy create a risk of spreading COVID-19," Ghaly said. "The fact that positive cases are... READ MORE
  • COVID-19 California cases: 862,124 (+3,756)
  • COVID-19 California deaths: 16,656 (+63)
  • COVID-19 California death rate: 1.93%
  • COVID-19 California testing: 16,333,717 individual tests (+142,376)
  • COVID-19 California positivity rate: 5.28%
  • COVID-19 California single-day positivity rate: 2.64%
In the Central Valley
The Madera County Department of Public Health COVID-19 Update:

10/13/2020 COVID-19 UPDATE: Reporting 9 cases from the public and 1 from Valley State Prison (total 10 cases) bringing the total number of reported cases to 4,796. 
Of the 4,796:
  • 344 active cases (including 7 Madera County residents hospitalized in Madera County)
  • 4,381 recovered (34 released from isolation) 
  • 71 deceased
Madera County is averaging 17 new cases per 100,000 residents, with 239 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 365 new infections and 22 new coronavirus deaths. In the combined 7 counties, COVID-19 has infected 101,689 and has killed 1,397 residents of our region since it claimed its first central valley victim, in Madera, on March 26, 2020. 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, 8,328 tests, 0.92+%
  • Merced: 9,265 cases (+116), 152 deaths (+2), 58,434 tests, 15.86+%
  • Madera: 4,796 cases (+10), 71 deaths, 63,922 tests, 7.50+%
  • Fresno: 29,390,cases (+80), 424 deaths (+18), 316,305 tests, 9.29+%
  • Tulare: 16,976 cases (+86), 269 deaths, est. 141,467 tests, 12.00+%
  • Kings: 8,096 cases (+82), 82 deaths, 94,921 tests, 8.53+%
  • Kern: 33,089 cases (+69), 397 deaths (+2), 204,913 tests, 16.15+%

COVID-19 in the 7 counties together

  • 7 counties cases: 101,689 (+365)
  • 7 counties deaths: 1,395 (+22)
  • 7 counties death rate: 1.37%
  • 7 Counties tests: 888,290 (est.)
  • 7 Counties positivity rate: 11.45%
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

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