Coronavirus daily update: Monday, June 15

Life in the fast lane

There’s plenty going on around the world and in the state, but today we’re just talking about coronavirus, specifically as it pertains to North Carolina, and the Triad in particular.

Because things are not slowing down. We are not fighting this pandemic effectively. From here, it looks like we responded to the greatest challenge of our lifetimes with nothing but a shrug.

Don’t believe me? Let’s look at the numbers.

The numbers

• We’re No. 5 — the state with the fifth-fastest rate of new COVID-19 cases. This NY Times link describes the horrible curve we have been following, which unlike others in the Top 5 has been heading straight up the Y axis.
• Today we’ve got 983 new cases in NC. That’s on just 11,349 tests — 8.66 percent infection rate of the sample.
  • Since Friday, when I last reported, we have added almost 4,000 new cases.
  • We’ve had 45,102 total diagnoses of the disease, 29,219 presumed to be recovered and 1,118 deaths. So 14,765 people have it right now.
• Guilford County cracked the 2,000 mark over the weekend — 2,028 total diagnoses, 1,055 recoveries and 95 deaths.
  • Guilford has the second-most deaths in the state. Mecklenburg has more (124).
• Forsyth County cracked the 2,000 mark last week. They report 46 new cases today, along with 77 (Saturday) and 76 (Sunday). Now there’s 2,250.
  • 1,325 have recovered and 25 have died. That leaves 900.
• The United States claims an even 27 percent of the world’s COVID-19 diagnoses (2,180,871/8,075,882), and just a slight bit more of its deaths (118,243/437,527).
  • We lead the world in active cases (3,501,560) and tests performed (114,491,297)

A diversion

Let’s talk about casual racism, shall we? Back in the 1970s, when Georgia peanut farmer Jimmy Carter became president, the South was having something of a moment. Lynyrd Skynyrd, CB radios, Billy Beer and all that. From this cultural stew came “Carter Country,” a sitcom about a fictional Georgia backwater that ran from 1977-79. The premise: a new black cop in a racist police department. One of the officers is actually in the Klan — it’s a plot point. I remind you: This is a comedy. Here’s an episode from late in the first season.

Program notes

• From the Metropolitan Museum of Art‘s public-domain collection, tonight we’ve got “Watson and the Shark,” by John Singleton Copely, 1778.
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