Daily corona round-up

Back to our regularly scheduled pandemic

Whelp, the election’s just about over — unless you’re this guy, or a candidate for NC Supreme Court chief justice — that race, which has been as close as seven one-millionth of a percentage point since Friday, has tipped for Paul Newby, the Republican, by about 200 votes according to this news report, filed 27 minutes ago.

This means that we can once again focus on the global pandemic, which is reaching new heights across the globe, just like everyone who knows something said it would.

Some news

  • A shooting in downtown Greensboro this morning left a 20-year-old dead and police, whose offices are literally on either side of the street where it happened, with no answers. More to come on this, I’m sure.
  • It looks like the 2021 NCAA Final Four Men’s Basketball Tournament will be played in its entirety at one venue, probably in Indianapolis, instead of holding lower rounds in places like the Greensboro Coliseum, which was supposed to host an early round this year. Coronavirus, dontcha know.
  • According to this “risk level” dashboard, about half of North Carolina’s 100 counties are at the “tipping point.” Yes, this includes ours.

The numbers

  • Daily cases down to 1,972 today statewide, after more than 3,000 yesterday and a new high, 3,885 the day before. 299,061 molecular positives since March.
    • New recovery numbers: 276,132 (92.33 percent). 4,814 deaths (1.61 percent). 18,115 current cases, 1,424 hospitalized (7.86 percent).
    • 8.1 percent positive test rate.
  • Forsyth County posts 76 new cases for 11,014, with four new deaths (146, 1.33 percent) and 9,071 recoveries (82.36 percent). 1,797 current cases.
  • Guilford has 185 new ones, which is a lot. 13,365 total, with 215 dead (+7, 1.61 percent) and 1,158 recoveries (86.64 percent). 1,592 current cases.
  • My take: Death rate is pretty low, but current cases are troubling.

A diversion

I’m just so proud of this kid! It’s my son’s junior recital at App State, where he majors in guitar performance, from yesterday. The campus is coronavirus-ing, so we watched from a King Street hotel lobby, on an iPad. Kid needs some black socks.

Program notes

  • For tonight’s featured image, we’ve got “The Start of the Race of the Riderless Horses,” which is something they used to do in France during Carnival. By Horace Vernet, 1820. Taken from the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s public-domain collection.
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