Coronavirus daily update: Tuesday, July 14

Back to school… or not!

Have you seen the news? Our kids are go0ing back to school in the fall! Probably! Maybe. Some of them, anyway, almost definitely.

Gov. Cooper’s presser on the school year today wasn’t exactly Roosevelt’s “Infamy” speech, and it left many pertinent questions unanswered. But it got the point across that things will definitely not be snapping back to normal in August, which is next month, for those of you who have lost track of time. And it advised that things would go a lot better if we could slow the spread of coronavirus by wearing masks.

Oh yeah, and four NC A&T University student-athletes tested positive for COVID-19.

The numbers

• North Carolina hit 89,484 total cases today, after 1,956 new ones were reported.
  • We hit a high in hospitalizations again, with 1,109, but not enough to move the needle on available beds.
  • Our positive-testing rate jumped a point to 11 percent.
• Guilford County added 126 for 3,659 total, 56 new recoveries for 1,945 (53.16 percent), and 125 deaths (3.42 percent).
• Forsyth County has 54 new cases for 3,785. And 115 new recoveries makes 2,418 (63.88 percent) with no new deaths (40, or 1.06 percent).

A diversion

I went down the Karen Carpenter drum-solo rabbit hole for a while today while I was waiting on the governor’s presser. This led me to all of the Carpenters’ TV appearances in their most productive years, culminating with their 1976 TV special, a variety show of the Osmond variety, which really belittled their talent as musicians and songwriters. This is what we used to do to our heroes, people. Watch closely.

Program notes

• Tonight’s featured image is a “Formal Family Portrait of Thirteen People, Men in European Dress,” shot between 1860-70, photographer unknown.
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