Coronavirus daily update: Friday, Oct. 9

Our political pandemic

Disease is not supposed to be political. If anything, a human-killing virus should be enough to make us all realize that we are made of the same stuff, equals in the eyes of the virus, that everything else is just illusion we’ve created.

But the coronavirus is political — maybe because everything else is these days. But also because it seems like everyone on the Republican side of the equation is coming down with coronavirus, or refusing to be tested for it.

Shit’s crazy, man. So let’s stick to some things we can control — like reporting numbers! Let’s pop in on our area colleges with a neat little piece of alliteration:

College coronavirus cases

Everybody’s talking about App State up in Boone, where two of my kids are currently enrolled and are living. They had a big drop in their numbers today, hoping the trend continues. Around the Triad things are pretty good.

• NC A&T University: Eight new positives among students for 123 total since July 1. The eight are their first cluster yet.
• UNCSA: They have one active case among the students, and one recovery. Those two cases are the only ones all semester.
• UNCG: Twelve new positives this week among students, 108 total. A dozen cases among faculty, staff and contractors have already recovered.
• WSSU: No current cases among faculty or staff, 45 total diagnoses since March 1.
• Guilford College: Twenty cases to date, one active.
• Greensboro College: One active case apiece for students and faculty/staff, eight students in all, with three faculty/staff and three contractors.
• Salem College: No online info (or I can’t find it).
• High Point University: 32 active cases — 31 students and one faculty — and five “suspected student cases.”
• Wake Forest University: 13 “known, confirmed” cases in the last two weeks, 148 known, confirmed cases since Aug. 17.

The numbers

• 2,034 new cases in NC, which is fewer than yesterday but still not great. 220,965 total, resulting in 3,747 deaths (+25). Could be worse: Florida had almost 3,000 new ones today, and more than 15,000 have died.
  • Positive test rate 5.7 percent.
• Loving that snazzy new Guilford County dashboard, telling me there’s 108 new cases today for 9,460 total, with no new deaths (187) and 5,512 recoveries (+60).
• Forsyth County’s Facebook says (en Español!) 39 new cases for 7,540, with no new deaths (104) and 6,758 recoveries.

A diversion

For some reason I’ve been thinking about the TV show “WKRP in Cincinnati,” which was one of my favorites when I was a little kid. Best TV theme song ever. Here’s a classic episode about Bailey.

Program notes

• For tonight’s featured image, we’ve got “Daniel Crommelin Verplanck,” a portrait by John Singleton Copley, 1771. Would you look at this kid! Taken from the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s public-domain collection.
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