Coronavirus daily update: Saturday, April 4

The CDC says we should wear masks

I wrapped a white handkerchief around my face before I went into the grocery store today, outlaw style. There were a few others in the store wearing masks — about 10 percent, I’d say, including one of the checkout workers and a little boy shopping with his mother, who wore his paper mask upside down.

A few people looked at me like I was an asshole.

But the Center for Disease Control this morning recommended we wear cloth face-coverings — masks — when going out. Not medical masks — those are for front-line healthcare workers. You should donate those.

We’ll have more on this type of masking in the coming days. Until then, here’s the numbers.

The numbers

• Confirmed North Carolina COVID-19 cases jumped by more than 200 today — 2,486, by the N&O’s account, though they seem to have stopped giving free coronavirus coverage, so you might not be able to see it for free. They’re doing great work over there, so consider a subscription. But there’s a delay between the DHHS numbers and theirs, so DHHS numbers made a big jump today, more than 400 cases. It makes the whole thing difficult to track.
• It’s in 91 of 100 counties.
• Guilford County registered 92 cases today; that’s four more. Forsyth has 88; that’s eight more.
• More. All the numbers are more. I’ll dive into them some in tomorrow’s post.

A diversion

I’ve been listening to a lot of Johnny Cash lately. I find his penchant for black, his somber baritone and world-weary voice to be strangely soothing. So, today let’s drop in on the year 1977, when the “Johnny Cash & Family Christmas Show” aired on television. It’s got Roy Orbison, Roy Clark and even the Killer, Jerry Lee Lewis, who is definitely not ready for prime time. And then there’s the love of Johnny’s life, June Carter Cash — you can see in the opening minutes, even in this formalized, Nashville-spun fairy tale, that he’s crazy about her.

Program notes

• Tonight’s featured image is “Two Men Pulling on Ropes,” a drawing from Claude-Joseph Vernet, courtesy of the National Gallery of Art.
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