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

December 11, 2020 -- 701,179 is the new global record of confirmed infections in a single day. Today's 12,326 global death toll is the fourth day with over 12,000 daily deaths (above the last seven days' 10,939 daily average) and the world has added 4,391,346 new cases in the last week, with a growing daily average of 627,335 positive tests over the last seven days. Today, covid-19 killed one person every 7 seconds.

Many countries, including the United States, set new records of single day confirmed infections, but more importantly we are starting to see rising death numbers following the last few weeks' new cases global surge. Notably, Germany and Portugal, which had been touted as having demonstrated better control of their pandemic, compared to neighboring countries, are also seeing rising deaths and cases surges that may result in new mitigation measures. France has decided to strengthen its daily curfew, which will now start at 8:00PM instead of 10:00PM; the French government informed its population that there will be no midnight new year's eve celebrations outside this coming December 31st.

COVID-19 in the world today:

  • COVID-19 Global cases: 71,418,410 (+701 179) PEAK
  • COVID-19 Global deaths: 1,600,387 (+12,326)
  • COVID-19 Global death rate: 2.24%
  • COVID-19 Global testing*: 1,090,265,821 confirmed tests (+7,094,998)
  • COVID-19 Global positivity rate: 6.55%
  • COVID-19 Global single-day positivity rate: 9.88%

*: 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. Also, please forgive the occasional typos.
12/11/2020 6:20PM PST
The FDA just approved the Pfiser/BioNTech covid-19 vaccine
When will teachers be vaccinated? It depends on where you live | abcnews.com
Education groups are pushing for school staff to be in the next wave.

Health care workers and residents in long-term care facilities will likely be among the first to have access to a COVID-19 vaccine. Who's next in line could be from among a pool of essential workers, and educators hope they're at the top of that list.

"I would love enough vaccines to be available so teachers and educators and education support personnel could be moved up on the list as quickly as possible," Michael Lubelfeld, superintendent of the North Shore School District 112 in Highland Park, Illinois, told ABC News.

Lubelfeld's district, which serves 3,700 students across 10 campuses, opened in September with a hybrid model, with about 85% of students in-person. After eight weeks, the district had to pivot to remote learning due to increasing rates of COVID-19 transmission in the county.

Lubelfeld is hoping vaccination could be a mitigation measure that would allow schools to reopen in-person safely.

"We are all looking for this vaccination, anything that can get us back to fully in person is really our aim," he said. "We just want the kids and teachers back on campus."
Germany COVID-19 data

  • global rank: 12
  • 1,298,776 cases (+28,344) peak
  • 22,407 deaths (+587)
  • 30,494,036 tests
  • positivity rate 4.26%
  • 24hr positivity rate: N/A
Russia COVID-19 deaths

  • global rank: 4
  • 2,597,711 cases (+28,585)
  • 45,893 deaths (+613) peak
  • 81,564,365 tests (+543,001)
  • positivity rate 3.18%
  • 24hr positivity rate: 5.26%
Turkey COVID-19 deaths

  • global rank: 8
  • 1,780,673cases (+32,106)
  • 15,977 deaths (+226) peak
  • 20,709,452 tests (+208,873)
  • positivity rate 8.60%
  • 24hr positivity rate: 15.37%
Portugal COVID-19 deaths

  • global rank: 34
  • 340,287 cases (+5,080)
  • 5,373 deaths (+95) peak
  • 4,899,189 tests
  • positivity rate 6.84%
  • 24hr positivity rate: N/A
In the US
39 states reported at least 1,000 new COVID-19 infections in the last 24 hours. Today the nation set a new daily record as it reported 241,336 new infections and covid-19 killed 2,989 Americans in the last 24 hours. A record 107,258 covid-19 patients are now hospitalized in the United States, with 21,023 in ICU and 7,442 currently on ventilators. The numbers are worsening every day: the hospitalization numbers never broke 60,000 during the first two waves. November 2020 was the most infectious month of the pandemic with almost 4.5 million new confirmed covid-19 cases in the US. the first 11 days of December have already confirmed 2,353,794 new covid-19 infections putting us on track to pass 6.5 million new cases by new year's eve.
Pennsylvania COVID-19

  • national rank: 8
  • 476,493 cases (+13,318) peak
  • 12,331 deaths (+227)
  • 6,305,909 tests (+63,253)
  • positivity rate 7.56%
  • 24hr positivity rate 21.06%
North Carolina COVID-19 data

  • national rank: 12
  • 423,623 cases (+7,540) peak
  • 5,752 deaths (+38)
  • 5,850,241 tests (+71,783)
  • positivity rate 7.24%
  • 24hr positivity rate: 10.50%
Daily U.S. death toll will exceed 9/11′s for months, CDC director says | washingtonpost.com
The coronavirus will kill more people in the United States every day for the next two to three months than died in the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, or Pearl Harbor, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield said Thursday.

The stark warning came as the United States set a record for fatalities for the second day in a row, surpassing 3,300 deaths Thursday and bringing the U.S. death toll to more than 291,800, which is more than the number of U.S. soldiers killed in combat during World War II.
COVID-19 in the USA

  • Cases: 16,290,264 (+241,336) PEAK
  • Deaths: 302,727 (+2,989)
  • Death rate: 1.86%
  • Testing: 216,932,639 individual tests (+1,811,195)
  • Positivity rate 7.51%
  • Single-day positivity date: 13.32%
US top 5 infected states:

  1. California: 1,524,584 COVID-19 cases, 20,849 deaths
  2. Texas: 1,423,650 COVID-19 cases, 24,298 deaths
  3. Florida: 1,106,396 COVID-19 cases, 19,714 deaths
  4. Illinois: 832,951 COVID-19 cases, 15,067 deaths
  5. New York: 793,268 COVID-19 cases, 35,414 deaths
In California
California's ICU beds near capacity as Covid hospitalizations hit record levels | theguardian.com
The coronavirus continues to shatter grim records across California, as the surge in the fast-spreading virus fills hospital beds close to capacity.

California has recorded more than 1.4m cases and close to 20,500 deaths as of Friday morning, with numbers expected to keep rising. Hospitalizations in the state have hit record levels. Admissions to intensive care units have risen roughly 70% in just two weeks, leaving less than 10% of beds available across the state.

Gavin Newsom, the California governor, said this week that to reduce the pressure on hospitals, the state was working with regional leaders to determine where elective surgeries might be canceled to make room for emergency patients. That includes operations like heart valve replacements, tumor removals and preventive services such as colonoscopies. Those procedures are a revenue lifeblood for hospitals, many of which have lost substantial sums when elective procedures were postponed for weeks in California last April.

“Canceling elective procedures really is a last-resort option,” Jan Emerson-Shea, the vice-president of the California Hospital Association, said on Thursday. “However, in the midst of this current surge, which is the largest to date, some hospitals may have no choice.” The biggest challenge currently facing hospitals isn’t bed capacity but shortages of staff, personal protective equipment and testing supplies, Emerson-Shea added.

Public health officials blame the surge on people ignoring safety rules to wear masks and social distance except for with people in their own households. They have voiced fears that Covid 19 infection rates and hospitalizations will continue to soar as people ignore stay-at-home orders to gather for the holidays.

But the restrictions – the toughest since a spring lockdown – have been met with defiance from some business owners who say it will ruin them after nearly a year of seeing their clientele avoid public places because of Covid-19 fears and on-again, off-again restrictions.
The first state to breach 1.5M cumulative covid-19 confirmed infections, California's new daily cases and daily deaths peaked again today, with 13,178 new cases in Los Angeles county alone!

  • COVID-19 California cases: 1,524,584 (+35,937) PEAK
  • COVID-19 California deaths: 20,85\49 (+214) PEAK
  • COVID-19 California death rate: 1.37%
  • COVID-19 California testing: 26,572,343 individual tests (+248,011)
  • COVID-19 California positivity rate: 5.66%
  • COVID-19 California single-day positivity rate: 14.49%
In the Central Valley
The Madera County Department of Public Health COVID-19 Update:

12/11/2020: Reporting 104 cases from the public and 40 from Valley State Prison (total 144 cases), bringing the total number of reported cases to 7,612. 
Of the 7,612:
  • 1,797 active case (including 18 Madera County residents hospitalized in Madera County)
  • 5,708 recovered (42 released from isolation)
  • 107 deceased
Madera County is averaging 154 new cases per day (96 per 100K), with 1,075 new cases revealed over the last 7 days. We need to get down to an average of 11 cases per day or 77 cases over 7 days to switch from purple to red (from "widespread" to "substantial" contagion risk).

Today, the seven local counties together reported 2,189 new infections and 39 new coronavirus deaths. In the combined 7 counties, COVID-19 has infected 152,372 people and has killed 1,752 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: 171 cases (+4), 4 deaths, 10,133 tests, 1.69+%
  • Merced: 14,483 cases (+173), 207 deaths (+5), 84,79 6tests, 17.08+%
  • Madera: 7,612 cases (+144), 107 deaths, 109,721 tests, 6.94+%
  • Fresno: 42,788 cases (488), 542 deaths (+28), 517,191 tests, 8.27+%
  • Tulare: 25,042 cases (+418), 327 deaths (+12), est. 250,420 tests, 10.00+%
  • Kings: 13,044 cases (+131), 98 deaths (+1), 172,102 tests, 7.58+%
  • Kern: 49,232 cases (+831), 467 deaths (+4), 289,029 tests, 17.03+%

COVID-19 in the 7 counties together

  • 7 counties cases: 152,372 (+2,189)
  • 7 counties deaths: 1,752 (+39)
  • 7 counties death rate: 1.15%
  • 7 Counties tests: 1,433,392 (est.)
  • 7 Counties positivity rate: 10.63%
This has been the most infectious week since the first case was revealed in the central valley's seven monitored counties, 39 weeks ago. In the last 7 days, 14,177 new infections were confirmed and 99 covid-19 deaths -- the third highest weekly death report since late march 2020 have added to this sobering report. To date, COVID-19 has killed 1,752 and infected 152,372 residents in the area covered by Merced, Mariposa, Madera, Fresno, Tulare, Kings, and Kern Counties.
Central CA COVID-19 updates: Latest ICU capacities, stay-home order restrictions | abc30.com
FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- A surge in COVID-19 cases has impacted California and the communities in the Central Valley. The San Joaquin Valley has been placed on a stay-home order as local hospitals are strained.

Here's the latest information on Central California's ICU bed capacity. Swipe down for the latest on the regional stay-home order and other coronavirus updates.

Central California ICU Capacity by County

Updated 12/11/20, 12:12 pm: The California Department of Public Health has released the latest ICU capacities across Central California:

  • Fresno County: 8 open beds
  • Kings County: 1 open beds
  • Madera County: 7 open bed
  • Merced County: 8 opens beds
  • Mariposa County: Does not have Intensive Care Unit
  • Tulare County: 7 open beds

The San Joaquin Valley has the least available space of any region in California. On Friday, the region's capacity dropped to 4.5%, according to the state.
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.

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