May 4-6 Recap

18 hr

Summary

232,008 on May 4 and 258,954 on May 5, 215,443 on May 6 (totaling 7,759,771)

Governor Cuomo announced concrete criteria that each region of New York State needs to meet before it can reopen. The criteria include 14-day downward trends of hospitalization and deaths, amount of testing done, and open hospital beds.
Washington State (16,694 cases & 880 deaths) starts its four-phase reopening plan, beginning with reopening more than 100 state parks and lifting restrictions on other outdoor activities like golf, boating, hunting, and fishing. Three weeks need to pass before the next phase can take place.
Arizona (9,707 & 426) Department of Health Services asks its modeling team to halt work after results supported later reopening. The modeling team of about two dozen professors at Arizona State University and the University of Arizona was compiling the most robust public model in Arizona of COVID-19. The governor has announced plans to reopen starting May 8. What you don’t hear can’t hurt you, I guess?

The NBA is reopening practice facilities on May 8 in states that have eased restrictions. No more than 4 players can use the facility at once, and no group activities can take place.

The situation in Brazil (126,611 cases & 8,588 deaths) is increasingly dire as daily new case counts and deaths continue to trend upwards. Though the president of Brazil claims the worst is possibly over, three states (Maranhão, Ceará, and Pará) began rigid lockdowns. (Pará’s governor had tested positive in mid-April but was asymptotic)
As Israel (16,346 & 239) eases restrictions as it prepares to do 100,000 antibody tests to assess whether the country is approaching herd immunity or if a second wave will be likely. The government warned that restrictions can be reinstated if new daily case numbers or patients in ICUs reach certain thresholds.
Disneyland Shanghai is opening on May 11. The park will allow a limited crowd. Guests will be need to book tickets in advance to avoid queues at the entrance. Before entering the park, a QR code will need to be scanned for contact tracing while guests will need to wear face masks at all times, except when eating. Employees, or cast members as Disney calls them, will also be required to wear face masks. This will surely be a case study in how to gradually reopen not just theme parks, but large public spaces in general.

More than 170 years ago, the Choctaw Nation sent $170 to starving Irish families during the potato famine. Now hundreds of Irish people are repaying that old kindness, giving to a charity drive for two Native American tribes suffering in the Covid-19 pandemic. As of Tuesday, the fund-raiser has raised more than $1.8 million to help supply clean water, food and health supplies to people in the Navajo Nation and the Hopi Reservation, with hundreds of thousands of dollars coming from Irish donors, according to the organizers.
ChinaTalk (hosted by Jordan Schneider) continues with Coronastories, with stories from Yangyang Cheng & her complex relationship with her mother, Asmod and governmental actions (and corruptions) in Nepal, as well as a summary of government and citizen actions in Singapore.
Not sure if this is funny or dumb: Prof Neil Ferguson has quit as a government adviser on coronavirus after admitting an "error of judgement.” He leads the team at Imperial College London that modeled the spread of the virus and claimed that 500,000 people in the UK would die if no measures were taken.

This is a work in progress, so please PLEASE let me know at dailycovid19updates@gmail.com if you have any suggestions, and/or see anything that is wrong or missing. You can also tweet me @julienchien