Coronavirus daily update: Thursday, June 11

Coronavirus math

I want to start with the numbers today, because they’re important. we are on an upward trajectory in North Carolina, in terms of new cases and hospitalizations. And increased testing has revealed that a lot of us are coming into contact with it.

Be safe. Be considerate. And be aware.

The numbers

• In North Carolina we have 1,310 new cases reported today. They come on 19,027 tests, 6.88 percent. Please click the link and look at the way the chart is trending. This is a few shy of double yesterday’s total of 676.
  • 32 more people were hospitalized, making 812 of reporting hospitals. We’re using an even 80 percent of our inpatient hospital beds, and 87 percent of our ICU units. There are more going in than there are coming out.
  • Statewide, cases are an even 50-50 between males and females; 45 percent are between 25-49; 54 percent white and 27 percent black; Hispanics count for 43 percent of statewide cases.
  • We have at least 23,653 recoveries in our state, but also 1,104 deaths. Our fatality rate stands at 2.6 percent.
• Guilford County has 38 new cases, 1,891 total diagnoses and 972 recoveries, with 93 deaths. That’s 826 active.
• Forsyth County has 42 new cases, 1,967 total with seven new deaths (25 total) and no new recoveries (95 total). Can there be 1,847 active cases in Forsyth? If anyone has better data, please straighten me out.
• North Carolina is a hot spot. Forsyth County is a hotspot. We are going the wrong way and we can do better.

Some news

• There will still be a Republican National Convention in Charlotte… sort of. It will involve 336 delegates, and Trump will give his acceptance speech will be… elsewhere. Jacksonville, Fla.? The lobby of Trump Tower? The foot of Mount Rushmore? Who’s to say? A lot can happen between then and now.
• No more confederate flags at NASCAR events. Oh, and there’s a #BlackLivesMatter car. And also Dale Jr. is woke.
• The House has passed another piece of legislation allowing bars and gyms to open. It awaits the governor’s signature… and waits, and waits.

A diversion

So NASCAR is on board! Let’s celebrate by resurrecting a failed attempt at marketing America’s most driving-est sport: a short-lived kids’ cartoon called “NASCAR Racers” that ran from 1999-2001. It’s noteworthy in that it has almost nothing to do with the actual NASCAR, and also because it’s quite terrible. Here’s the first episode, a quick 21 minutes.

Program notes

• From the Metropolitan Museum of Art‘s public-domain collection, tonight we’ve got “Portrait of Juan de Pareja,” by his Velazquez, 1650. Velazquez inherited Pareja as a slave in 1631, and he served as the painter’s assistant until Velazquez freed him in 1650, around the time of this painting.
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