Coronavirus daily update: Monday, Feb. 22

The end is in sight

I’m not talking about the end of the pandemic, which I’m putting at midsummer, when we can all get back to some semblance of our regular lives. I’m talking about the end of the CDU, which I’ve been somewhat faithfully filing most nights since mid-March 2020.

I’m not hanging it up anytime soon, but I plan on stopping the updates when the daily number of new cases in our counties gets down to zero. I believe we are not that far off.

We’ve already crossed many important milestones on the back end of this thing — which has the potential do drop just as quickly as it escalated when we were on the front end: We’re putting out more vaccines per day than we are getting new cases, and we’re giving more second doses than we are first doses, indicating that we’re coming to the end of the first phase. Our hospitalization numbers, while still troubling, have dropped well below the danger levels. Positive-test percentage is in mid-single digits.

If everyone can keep their droplets to themselves for another couple months, our lives will look very different.

Steep cost though. We’ve lost more than 500,000 souls in the United States. Let their lives not have passed in vain.

No news today. Let’s drop some numbers.

The numbers

• 2,133 new cases today in North Carolina, 844,770 total, with a 7-day average of about 3,000 per day. 10,934 deaths, which are starting to slow down.
  • 795,521 recoveries, making 38,315 current cases, give or take.
  • 1,567 hospitalizations, steadily decreasing the last six days.
  • 6.1 percent positive test rate.
  • 676,572 have been completely vaccinated, 6.5 percent of the state’s population.
• Guilford County trends up with 214 new cases, 38,344 total, and 506 deaths.2,395 current cases.
• Forsyth drops to double-digits with 96 new cases, 31,256 total. 338 deaths.

A diversion

You like silent horror films? Here’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, from 1920, starring John Barrymore. Old school.

Program notes

• “Saint Rosalie Interceding for the Plague-stricken of Palermo,” the Dutch master Anthony van Dyck, who was in Palermo in 1624 when a plague broke out. Rosalie’s remains were found in the city during that time. Thanks to the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s public-domain collection.
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