My state's covid numbers are exploding

[bigtree]

...I'm in Maryland, and our numbers of recorded infected have doubled our worst that we experienced in June-July.

The infection rate isn't there yet, but it's steadly rising. We'd been down in the 2% range last month, after soaring in the 20s during the worst period. It was at about 2-400 infections daily just weeks ago. We had gotten to under 300 hospitalized and a handful of deaths every day.

Here are today's numbers, worst day yet, in a week or so of exploding statistics:

Confirmed Cases
169,805
24hr Change: +2,149

Confirmed Deaths
4,186
24hr Change: +26

Testing % Positive
6.85%
24hr Change: 0.4

Currently Hospitalized
1,046
24hr Change: 61


...terrified here in Md..

https://coronavirus.maryland.gov/

[SheltieLover]

1. Same here!

Stay safe!

[bigtree]

14. thanks. You, too!

Last edited Tue Nov 17, 2020, 01:50 PM - Edit history (1)

...I retired last month (not working until sometime next year), drafting on savings.

My wife is still working though, retail grocery, small store. Every day is a russian roulette, crap shoot.

[SheltieLover]

20. That has to be scary!

Glad you are out of the civid mix!

Does wife's store require masks properly worn?

[bigtree]

21. small business

...no strong central authority present.

It was a hard slog to get people there on board. My wife was the first to mask up, our family established a battle plan and stuck to it. We still regard every day as an active battle, no room for failure. But it took months for the rest to take it seriously.

Now the workers are all vigilant, but there are always customers without any compunction to comply, and neglect to take care for others around them.

[SheltieLover]

22. I'm glad your wife & employees are being safe!

Does she wear goggles to protect eyes from potential infection?

[orwell]

2. Too bad...

...nobody predicted a coronavirus wave during the winter that we could have prepared for at the national level.

I guess we all just have to "suck it up" and die at the altar of Trump so that we don't hurt his delicate sensibilities.

Paging Dr. Atlas...you're needed in the morgue.

Tax breaks for the rich aren't so great if you are already dead...

[Hermit-The-Prog]

26. The filthy rich have minions to fetch and go out amongst the other peons.

[Newest Reality]

3. That's the exponential growth phase we were trying to prevent with shutdowns. It is out of control.

Double that, then double it again, and so on. You get the picture.

Hunker down, a COVID storm is coming thanks to this Administration.

[bigtree]

12. there really isn't any other way right now

...to slow the spread, other than mandatory restrictions on shopping, dining, travel and other ways we physically interact with each other.

We'll get to the voluntary, AFTER we master the mandatory.

[5X]

4. Same in Oklahoma where we are up stitt creek. n/t

[bigtree]

18. your hospitalization numbers rising

...and your Gov. resisting mask mandates, among other things.

Like 4k (reported) cases a day.

[liberal_mama]

5. I live in Erie County, New York and our new cases are exploding too

New infections have doubled every week for 3 weeks. We had over 3000 cases in a week, just for our county! We are so close to the vaccine. It's time for another stay-at-home order in a lot of states.

[bigtree]

6. we all get commuter traffic from each other

...here in the MD./metro suburbs.

D.C., Va., Pa., Delaware too.

It's going to get worse unless something stark and dramatic is done. It's like a laborer who's being told he has to exercise more, but it needs to happen because what we're doing isn't doing much good.

[question everything]

7. It is everyplace

In Minnesota has seen around 7500 new cases every day in the past week

Total cases - 231K

Total death - 2973

[bigtree]

9. I know our numbers are small, comparatively

...ours is one of the states where the virus was reasonably managed, albeit still devastating many communities and nursing and aging centers.

To see this explosion is disturbing because our compliance with regs like masking and distancing have been increasingly more socially accepted and practiced in much of the state. Now this thing is outdistancing our voluntary, almost casual relationship with this pandemic. We're going to need a stronger response.

[MineralMan]

8. Number seem to be rising quickly just about everywhere.

Minnesota is having considerable growth in the numbers, as well. I haven't been able to ascertain whether the increase is mainly in the metro area or in the rural parts of the state, but there was a lot of increase in the outstate areas earlier, so I suspect that's where the problem is the worst.

There is a lot of resistance from our Republican legislators, who are also catching the virus, themselves. We have several state Senators and House members who have tested positive for the virus, including the top Republican in the state house.

Despite that, Republicans are resisting increases in safety measures. It makes no sense at all to me.

[bigtree]

11. it's not out of hand to figure that republicans and their ilk are responsible for much of the spread

...clearly those folks stood out, in my workplace and other instances I've seen, as the most prominent resisters to masking and other distancing measures.

It's not at all unpredictable to find them dominating the folks refusing to take precautions, but it is stunning just how stark the divide is.

[MineralMan]

13. Yes. The mask refusers appear to be those who are getting infected

to a larger degree. And yet, they continue to resist mask mandates. And, out in the community, when you see people without masks, they are invariably Republicans, based on their bumper stickers, etc.

Here in the metro areas of Minnesota, there is good compliance with our mask requirements in stores, etc. Outstate, not so much, which appears to reflect the politics of those areas.

It will be interesting to see who does and does not receive the vaccines, when they become available. I suspect it will be the same division we're seeing with masking. Republicans seem to be hastening their own demises. Weird.

[icwlmuscyia]

10. I am in Iowa. We are blowing by most of you. Kim Reynolds is a gift to covid

Only South Dakota seems to be worse managed than us.

[MineralMan]

15. Today, I saw a tourism ad for South Dakota on my local Twin Cities TV station.

Yah, sure, I'm going to head there for a holiday, you betcha.

[bigtree]

16. she's sick in the head

...suffers from rampant trumpublicanism.

Sorry Iowa's leadership's so hard on you all. Godspeed to a vaccine or cure.

[MissB]

17. Headline applies to like 49 states

Maybe leaving Hawaii out of it for now?

[bigtree]

19. they have a statewide mask mandate

https://www.chron.com/news/article/Hawaii-governor-to-standardize-mask-mandate-15733215.php

Oahu

14,337 total cases
1,158 cases in the last 14 days
1,068 required hospitalization
173 deaths

Hawaii County

1,479 total cases
178 cases in the last 14 days
71 required hospitalization
31 deaths

Maui

450 total cases
43 cases in the last 14 days
58 required hospitalization
17 deaths

Lanai

106 total cases
7 cases in the last 14 days
5 required hospitalization
0 deaths

Molokai

17 total cases
0 cases in the last 14 days
1 required hospitalization
0 deaths

Kauai

82 total cases
17 cases in the last 14 days
5 required hospitalization
0 deaths

Out-of-state

142 total cases
63 cases in the last 14 days
2 required hospitalization
1 death

[mvd]

23. I lived in MD until age 14. Sorry to hear this

I am in PA now and we just had another record high of over 5,900 new cases. Philly has new restrictions and they may be coming to the surrounding counties where I live. Wolf and Levine have resisted new statewide restrictions for now.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

24. I'd like to know why PA does so little testing.

It seems logical to me that with less testing, there's more likelihood of infected people unknowingly not isolating.

This article is from September:
Pennsylvania Gives Fewer COVID Tests Per Capita Than Any Other State in the Country
https://www.phillymag.com/news/2020/09/01/covid-tests-per-capita-pennsylvania/

And PA remains near the bottom, currently testing 1.7 per 1000 people, with only Oregon currently worse at 1.6 per 1000 people.

Meanwhile, OH is currently at 4.9 per 1000 and MD is currently at 5.1 per 1000.

Lower testing will naturally lower the number of confirmed newly infected. PA has long shown better numbers than Ohio in that regard (infections per 100,000 people), but PA's higher death toll from Covid tells a different story. Ohio has also consistently had lower positive testing percentages.

Could nearby New York's insistence on looking at infections per 100,000 people, as their means of restricting travel to their state, have compelled PA to have less testing to reduce their values?

It doesn't help with positive test rates, though. Here's where they and others stand in that statistic per Johns Hopkins:

PA: 23.1%
OH: 12.6%
MD: 5.7%

All of them much better than states like WY (62.9%), SD (57.5%), IA (51.7%) and KS (43.8%), of course.

[mvd]

25. Not sure

Testing has gone up since September, but not as much as I would like. This site has some good info:

https://www.health.pa.gov/topics/disease/coronavirus/Pages/Cases.aspx