Daily corona round-up

From the coffeeshop

I did it: I left my house — showered, shampooed, in fresh, clean clothes. I ran an errand! And then I posted up at the coffeeshop where, in those bygone days before the coronavirus, I used to write every single Tuesday for many years. And that’s where I’m sitting right now.

Already I’ve learned three things that have been happening around town, set up a meeting and been invited to guest on a podcast.

God I miss the streets, the cafés and bars and restaurants, the shops and markets. I miss serendipitous human interaction, the magic that happens when free-range humans bump into each other. And I wonder what will become of the culture after so much time kept apart.

Some news

  • Sayaka Matsuoka dropped a major work of journalism today, documenting survivors of rape culture, and a moment of reckoning through online community-building.
  • We don’t try to predict elections anymore.
  • Nominations are still open for our Best of the Beat — Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Edition. Nominate your favorite hairdresser, bakery, real estate agent and more!

The numbers

  • North Carolina ticks upwards with 1,106 new cases today, for 186,887. But our 7-day average has leveled off.
    • Positive test rate hovers at 5 percent. But testing in general is down.
  • Guilford County has 49 new cases for 7,790 total. Of those, 4,537 have recovered (+56, 58.24 percent) and 166 (+0, 2.13 percent) have died.
    • Of the remaining 3,087 cases, 637 are hospitalized (20.63 percent).
  • Forsyth County adds 34 new cases and five deaths, for 6,668 and 91, respectively. 5,957 recoveries (89.34 percent).
    • Of the remaining 620 cases, 18 are hospitalized (2.90 percent)

A diversion

In honor of my friend Dusty, proprietor of this coffeeshop and who, I suspect, is a leprechaun, I present a very bad movie about his people: 1995’s Leapin’ Leprechauns. I have not watched it.

Program notes

  • For tonight’s featured image, we’ve got “The Ridotto Pubblico at Palazzo Dandolo,” by Francesco Guardi, 1865-68. Taken from the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s public-domain collection. And hey: The Met is now open on Fifth Avenue in NYC, if you’re in town.
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