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

September 22, 2020 -- The acceleration of the spread in Europe is now forcing the UK’s Prime Minister to issue new guidelines, such as closing pubs at 10:00pm and severely reducing the number of guests at restaurants, while requiring masks to be worn in cabs, subways, and all enclosed spaces. The second infectious wave is also spreading to the middle east, with Iran almost reaching new cases totals unseen since March. The Netherlands peaked again today, and Indonesia reported a few dozen cases less than their one-day old record. India appears to have reached its apex and is showing signs of bending its curve, reporting numbers well below the 90,000+ reports we have seen through the last few weeks, reporting September’s lowest number of 74,493 new cases yesterday (and 80,391 today). In the US, the state of Texas government website reported a huge hike in new cases today (+17,820); a number that may require further validation and which I will keep monitoring for potential corrections. Midwestern states are reporting infection rates above or awfully close to 1: North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Utah. California is now reporting numbers clearly indicating the spread is slowing down in the Golden State to the baseline target number needed to safely reopen the state, hoping the numbers will keep waning down to and stay below 2,000 new cases per day (+2,921 today). 

COVID-19 in the world today

  • COVID-19 Global cases: 31,770,814 (+296,507)
  • COVID-19 Global deaths: 975,271 (+6,162)
  • COVID-19 Global death rate: 3.07%
  • COVID-19 Global testing*: 609,858,759 confirmed tests (+4,296,406)
  • COVID-19 Global positivity rate: 5.21%
  • COVID-19 Global single-day positivity rate: 6.31%

*: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.
Netherlands COVID-19 data

  • global rank: 38
  • 98,240 cases (+2,245) PEAK
  • 6,291 deaths (+10)
  • 2,042,887 tests
  • positivity rate 4.81%
Iran COVID-19 data

  • global rank: 13
  • 429,193 cases (+3,712)
  • 24,656 deaths (+178)
  • 3,800,619 tests (+27,319)
  • positivity rate 11.29%
Great Britain COVID-19 data

  • global rank: 14
  • 403,551 cases (+4,926)
  • 41,825 deaths (+37)
  • 22,390,619 tests (+218,640)
  • positivity rate 1.81%
Indonesia COVID-19 data

  • global rank: 23
  • 252,923 cases (+4,071)
  • 9,837 deaths (+160)
  • 2,994,069 tests (+43,896)
  • positivity rate 8.45%
Covid-19: New fear grips Europe as cases top 30m worldwide | bbc.com
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases across the globe has surpassed 30 million, according to figures by America's Johns Hopkins University.

More than 940,000 have died with Covid-19 since the outbreak began in China late last year.

The US, India and Brazil have the most confirmed cases, but there is a renewed spike in infections across Europe.

Many northern hemisphere countries are now bracing for a second wave of the pandemic as winter approaches.

  • WHO warns Europe over 'very serious' Covid surge
  • Coronavirus: Where are the global hotspots?
  • What are the rules in France and other parts of Europe?

In the UK, the government is considering taking further England-wide measures including a short period of restrictions to try to slow a second surge of infections.

Outside Europe, Israel brings in a second nationwide lockdown later on Friday - the first nation to do so.

Africa has recorded more than a million confirmed cases, although the true extent of the pandemic in the continent is not known. Testing rates are reported to be low, which could distort official figures.

What is happening in key countries?
A team of infectious disease experts at Johns Hopkins University, in the US city of Baltimore, have been documenting the global spread of Covid-19 on its tracking website.

According to their data, the US remains by far the worst-hit country in terms of sheer numbers, with more than 6.6 million confirmed infections, and over 197,000 deaths.

The number of new daily infections has been dropping, though, after a spike in July. READ MORE
In the US
Rising coronavirus case numbers in many states spur warning of autumn surge | washingtonpost.com
Progress in slowing the march of the novel coronavirus has stalled in much of the United States, and the pathogen is spreading at dangerous rates in many states as autumn arrives and colder weather — traditionally congenial to viruses — begins to settle across the nation, public health data shows.

Organizations that track the virus, including The Washington Post, have logged recent increases in case numbers and test positivity rates — worrisome trends as the United States on Tuesday surpassed the grim milestone of 200,000 deaths. Hospitalizations and deaths remain lower nationally than at their midsummer peak, but those numbers always lag several weeks behind trends in new infections.

Twenty-seven states and Puerto Rico have shown an increase in the seven-day average of new confirmed cases since the final week of August, according to The Post’s analysis of public health data. Minnesota, Montana, Oklahoma, Puerto Rico, Wisconsin, Wyoming and Utah set record highs Monday for seven-day averages.

The global picture has reaffirmed that covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, is not about to fade away. Countries that had been successful early in the pandemic in driving down viral transmission — such as France, Spain and Israel — are struggling with new waves of cases and instituting new shutdowns. Most people remain susceptible to infection, and the virus is highly opportunistic.

“No country is safe,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “No country at this point can ever relax and assume the worst is behind them”

It is too soon to know whether a major autumn surge in infections, something long feared among infectious-disease experts, has started on a broad national scale. Short-term statistical trends can be influenced by quirks in testing and reporting. Moreover, experts caution that they cannot predict human behavior and that any forecast beyond a few weeks is speculative.

Efforts to track transmission have been complicated by the national rollout of millions of antigen coronavirus tests, which offer rapid results but are less sensitive than polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, genetic tests. Many states are not reporting those test results, confounding efforts to track the virus.

“I suspect there will be an increasing number of states whose data becomes unreliable,” said David Rubin, director of PolicyLab at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, which has a model that forecasts transmission in counties throughout the nation.
COVID-19 in the USA

  • Cases: 7,097,879 (+51,663)
  • Deaths: 205,471 (+969)
  • Death rate: 2.89%
  • Testing: 99,666,186 individual tests (+756,411)
  • Positivity rate: 7.12%
  • Single-day positivity date: 6.83%
Oklahoma COVID-19 data

  • national rank: 27
  • 79,072 cases (+1,164)
  • 962 deaths (+14)
  • 1,114,878 tests (+30,576)
  • positivity rate 7.09%
Utah COVID-19 data

  • national rank: 31
  • 65,044 cases (+650)
  • 443 deaths (+2)
  • 982,545 tests (+9,364)
  • positivity rate 6.62%
US top 5 infected states:

  1. California: 793,600 COVID-19 cases, 15,195 deaths
  2. Texas: 751,571 COVID-19 cases, 15,361 deaths
  3. Florida: 687,909 COVID-19 cases, 13,421 deaths
  4. New York: 485,218 COVID-19 cases, 33,184 deaths
  5. Georgia: 308,221 COVID-19 cases, 6,677 deaths
In California
California’s COVID-19 positivity rate drops below 3% for the first time | latimes.com
The share of Californians who tested positive for COVID-19 in the last week dipped below 3% for the first time, a sign that the Golden State is finally starting to beat back the spread of the coronavirus, officials said Monday.

Just 3.1% of Californians who were tested over the last two weeks received a positive result, and that ratio dropped to 2.8% in the last seven days, state officials said. Hospitals in California are treating the fewest patients with the virus since April, and admissions to the state’s intensive care units have been dropping steadily, too.

It’s a rare piece of good news for 40 million Californians, who are contending with raging wildfires and toxic air quality on top of the economic, physical and emotional effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

But the good news is tempered with caution: Those fires, coupled with heat waves and toxic air quality, led to a decline in testing. And health officials still aren’t certain if gatherings on Labor Day led to an increase in transmission because the virus can take up to two weeks to incubate. READ MORE
  • COVID-19 California cases: 793,600 (+2,921)
  • COVID-19 California deaths: 15,195 (+124)
  • COVID-19 California death rate: 1.91%
  • COVID-19 California testing: 13,804,055 individual tests (+131,273)
  • COVID-19 California positivity rate: 5.75%
  • COVID-19 California single-day positivity rate: 2.23%
In the Central Valley
The Madera County Department of Public Health COVID-19 Update:

9/22/2020 COVID-19 UPDATE: Reporting 33* new cases bringing the total number of reported cases to 4,424. We also regret to report 3 additional COVID-related deaths.
*4 of the 33 news cases are from Valley State Prison.

Of the 4,424:
  • 531 active case (including 12 Madera County residents hospitalized in Madera County) 
  • 3,828 recovered (28 released from isolation)
  • 65 deceased

3 additional deceased
  • Male, 70’s, Underlying conditions
  • Male, 50’s, Underlying conditions
  • Female, 70’s, No underlying conditions

Today, the seven local counties together confirmed 708 new infections and 17 new coronavirus deaths (1,462 new cases and 28 new deaths since our last report on Friday 9/18/2020). 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: 75 cases, 2 deaths, 5,668 tests, 1.32+%
  • Merced: 8,803 cases (+19), 140 deaths (+3), 52,875 tests, 16.65+%
  • Madera: 4,424 cases (+33), 65 deaths (+3), 53,272 tests, 8.30+%
  • Fresno: 27,439 cases (+384), 362 deaths (+7), 272,795 tests, 10.06+%
  • Tulare: 15,782 cases (+95), 257 (+1) deaths, est. 131,517 tests, 12.00+%
  • Kings: 7,534 cases (+102), 77 deaths, 73,395 tests, 10.27+%
  • Kern: 31,647 cases (+75), 357 deaths (+3), 188,599 tests, 16.78+%

COVID-19 in the 7 counties together

  • 7 counties cases: 95,704 (+708)
  • 7 counties deaths: 1,260 (+17)
  • 7 counties death rate: 1.32%
  • 7 Counties tests: 778,121 (est.)
  • 7 Counties positivity rate: 12.30%
Keep observing the simple yet proven 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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