Coronavirus daily update: Monday, March 1

Back to school again, again

Today I dropped a child off at school for the first time in a year. Picked her up there, too. Strange how such a common, mundane activity becomes infused with novelty after abstaining for so long.

My daughter is back in high school, two days a week for in-person learning and two for online. They’re supposed to have Wednesdays off, but, she says, we’ll see about that.

She’s 16, and in her year away from school she’s grown her hair out and changed up the color scheme; she’s several inches taller, and made some changes to her wardrobe, accessories and other elements of personal style. I imagine all the rest of the kids have done a bit of growing up as well. Gotta be weird, like coming back from an extended summer vacation and everybody’s changed.

Things are getting better. Feels that way, anyhow. Let’s dive into the numbers and see what they say.

the numbers

• 1,466 new cases in NC today, the fourth straight day of decline; 11,254 deaths, tapering off.
  • New recovery numbers of 819,839 give us approximately 31,077 current cases statewide.
  • 5.5 percent positive test rate, trending up, but a low amount of tests.
  • 8.0 percent of NC has been vaccinated, and another 13.7 percent have had the first shot.
• Guilford sucks with 153 new cases. The slowdown has not yet reached Guilford, with 518 deaths.
  • A big jump in recoveries means a big drop in current cases: 1,371.
• Forsyth data sucks, but the numbers they show are pretty good: 44 new cases today, no new deaths (345). But the recovery numbers date back to Feb. 20.

A diversion

I’ve been watching “Seinfeld” with the kids — really, just my daughter these daye because she’s the only one home. Amazing how it still holds up 25 years later, for the most part. Anyway, here’s 120 minutes of outtakes from all nine seasons of the show.

Program notes

• In Rome, they celebrate Carnival with races of riderless horses. “The Start of the Race of the Riderless Horses” feels appropriate in other ways as well. By Horace Vernet, 1820. Thanks to the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s public-domain collection.
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