March 26, 2021 – The tenacious covid-19 spread is roaring back with more aggressive variants in many countries all across the planet, setting new infections records and shaping a new global wave that could dwarf the previous ones, with stunning reports from India, Brazil, Peru, Poland, France, Turkey, Iraq, Ukraine, Greece, Bulgaria, Hungary, Armenia, Finland, Chile, Jordan, Colombia, Argentina, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Holland, Belgium, Germany, Canada, Romania, Sweden, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Togo, Djibouti, Papua New Guinea, even Japan is showing a sharp rise in new cases. This week, Brazil set a new daily case record of +97,586, India reached +62,291 new daily cases after having successfully reduced its national surge down to +8,947 only five weeks ago. France’s surge is so devastating the country will outrank Russia this weekend and will become the fourth most infected country after the US, Brazil, and India (in that order). The 27 members of the European Union are having supply problems rolling out their vaccination programs; the 450 million people bloc has only managed to stockpile 70 million vaccines, and issues with AstraZeneca, including the recent discovery of 29 million “hidden” doses stockpiled in Italy’s AstraZeneca plant, are worsening the situation. Whereas the UK boasts 40% of its population has already received the precious injections, the EU has only managed to administer the vaccines to 10 percent of its people, while about 27% of the US population has now been at least partially vaccinated. Let us hope the month of April proves more efficient worldwide, as vaccine production ramps up, more vaccines are approved, and delivery hiccups are resolved. Global deaths climbed again this week, up 6%, while new cases have also risen sharply, up 14% since last Friday. 3,752,576 new covid-19 infections were confirmed worldwide (470,280 more than last week’s total), while the virus and its variants killed 65,292 people globally in the last seven days.

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.

For the first time since early January, the nation is experiencing a significant increase in new weekly cases, with sudden spikes that appear to indicate the buildup of a new wave in many eastern states including Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland, and a few mid-western states: Michigan, Illinois, Missouri, Minnesota, and Indiana. The new surge added 35,090 more cases to the weekly total compared to last week’s (+9%), with 424,681 new cases reported nationwide in the last 7 days. Friday’s total (+76,976) was the highest national daily report in a month, the first 70K+ report since February 26. The death toll is still on the descent with 10% fewer fatalities reported over the week (+7,043). After reaching the initial goal of 100 million vaccinations a month ahead of schedule, the POTUS announced a new goal of 200 million vaccinations performed by the end of April. Let us hope that will be sufficient in reducing the impact of the surge that is most definitely shaping up.

COVID-19 in the USA

This week, California's 18,185 new coronavirus infections total is 9% lower than it was last week, and 1,281 more Californians have died from covid-19 (9% fewer than had last week). The welcome declines in both categories, although more modest than they were a week ago, will result in more counties switching from Purple to Red spread status (widespread to substantial). Let us hope that yesterday's daily report, the highest in 8 days, is only an inconsequential blip in our state's downward trend. The Governor of California announced this week that all Californians older than 50 years will be able to schedule vaccinations starting April 1, and all Californians over the age of 16 will also be able to do so two weeks later, starting on April 15. More patience, diligence, vaccinations, and compassion are needed to beat the virus.

3/26/2021: Reporting 12 new cases from the public bringing the total number of reported cases to 15,862. 

Of the 15,862:

Including its prison population, Madera County is averaging 11 new cases per day (7 per 100K), with 74 new cases revealed over the last 7 days, and 9 new cases per 100K over the last 14 days, enabling the authorities to switch our county from purple to red -- "widespread" to "substantial" -- contagion risk.

Today, the seven local counties together reported 314 new infections and 43 new coronavirus deaths. In the combined 7 counties, COVID-19 has infected 322,741 people and has killed 4,478 residents of our region since it claimed its first central valley victim, in Madera, on March 26, 2020.

COVID-19 in Madera + 6 local counties (+% is the positivity rate)

COVID-19 in the 7 counties together

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, 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 massively administered a safe and effective covid-19 vaccine -- currently estimated by vaccinating up to 85% of the population -- to finally reach herd immunity.