Coronavirus daily update: Friday, July 3

The Myrtle Beach live feed

I’ve been watching the live feed from Myrtle Beach, upon which thousands upon thousands of holiday travelers have descended today, and I can’t help but think that about 20 percent of the people there will probably come home with coronavirus that will almost certainly bloom into cases of COVID-19 within a couple weeks.

So I suppose I’m thankful that Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed a bunch of bills yesterday that would have allowed bars, gyms, amusement parks and other businesses to open.

But man, it’s the Fourth of July, and there’s nothing to do. Except watch the numbers tick upwards.

The numbers

• We have 2,099 new cases in North Carolina today. That is the most yet, though we did have increased testing, FWIW.70,241 total.
  • Our positive test rate for July 2 was 11 percent, up 3 points from the day before.
  • We’ve added 39 people to the “hospitalized” list, making 951. Bed availability remains stable.
  • We’ve added 10 new deaths, making 1,401.
• Guilford County has 3,000 diagnoses, up 91 from yesterday. New death, too, making 118.
• Forsyth County has 53 new cases, making 3,185. Most — 3,053 of them — are still active.

A diversion

I love 1960s beach movies — particularly the ones with Anette Funicello and Frankie Avalon. There is no rational explanation for this. I just do. Here’s Bikini Beach, from 1964. Stevie Wonder is in this one! And also, I believe, a surfing monkey. It’s the next best thing to sucking up the virus-rich air in Myrtle.

Program notes

• From the Metropolitan Museum of Art‘s public-domain collection, tonight we’ve got “Beach Scene,” an painting from 1965 by James Hamilton.
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