Coronavirus daily update: Thursday, June 25

Three freakin’ weeks

For once in this whole damn pandemic, we finally have a little clarity as to what the future might look like: Sure, cases are increasing and hospital beds are filling up, but a lot of places are open — grocery stores, breweries, some restaurants, retail and coffeeshops. And our governor says we can enter the next phase of our recovery in three weeks, provided we can get things moving in the right direction. To that end, we are supposed to wear masks to minimize the risk of transmission.

Three weeks! In masks! And I don’t want to hear another goddam word about it!

Just this morning I watched a grown man light a piece of medical equipment on fire using a lighter and a pair of barbecue tongs. Like a psycho! Don’t be that guy. I will not be linking this video.

If we can all avoid giving each other COVID-19 for just a few weeks, maybe we can start doing stuff again. So get with the program and put on your damn mask. Because at some point I’d like to visit another state without having to spend 14 days in quarantine. And my kid needs to go to high school.

The numbers

• Is 1,009 new cases in the state good? Is it bad? It’s fact, and it’s down from yesterday by a lot. 57,183 total cases.
  • These align with 19,993 tests, giving us 5.05 percent, which is also down. But this page has a more direct analysis of infection rates, citing it at 9 percent yesterday.
  • 15 fewer people are in hospitals with COVID-19 than yesterday.
• Guilford County says 2,585 cases overall, that’s 59 new ones, with 1,505 recoveries and 111 deaths (+1). 969 active.
• Forsyth County gets 36 new cases, for 2,715, with 1,756 recoveries (+30) and the same 31 deaths. 928 active.

A diversion

Movies from 1979 aren’t always politically correct. Like this one, Hot Stuff, a comedy starring Dom de Luise and Jerry Reed that I saw with my parents that summer at the Westbury Drive-In. De Luise was perhaps at his height of popularity, as was Reed, and then there was Suzanne Pleshette and the guy from “The Electric Company.” They play a trio of cops who set up a sting operation through a pawn shop. I loved it back then; hope it holds up.

Program notes

• From the Metropolitan Museum of Art‘s public-domain collection, tonight we’ve got “The Calling of Saint Matthew” by  Jan Sanders van Hemessen, undated. It depicts the moment Matthew gave up his life as a tax collector to follow Christ. All art was religious back then.
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