Alaska COVID-19 Count Wednesday[Thursday] April 16, 2020 - We Hit 300 Cases

Seven more case brings us to 300.
One more hospitalization brings the total to 35 (cumulative).
No more people died since yesterday.

CONFIRMED COVID-19 CASES ALASKA MARCH/APRIL 2020
Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
new/total	hos=hospital		12th  = 0/0	13th = 1/1	14th = 0/1	15th = 0/1
16th = 0/1	17th = 2/3	18th = 3/6	19th = 3/9	20th = 3/12	21st= 2/14	22nd= 8/22
23rd =14/36	24th =6/42 1 hos 1 dead	25th = 17/59 3 hos 1 dead	26th = 10/69 3 hos 1 dead	27th = 16/89 5 hos 2 dead	28th = 13/102 6 hos 2 dead	29th= 12/114 7 hos  3 dead
30th= 5/119 7 hos 3 dead	31st= 14/133 9 hos 3 dead
April 2020		1st=  10/143 9 hos 3 dead	2nd= 8(6)/149 13 hos 3 dead	3rd= 8(11)157 15 hos 3 dead	4th= 15/171 16 hos 5 dead	5th= 14/185 20 hos 6 dead
6th= 6/191 23 hosp 6 dead	7th= 22/213 23 hosp 6 Dead 29 recovered	8th= 13/226 27 hosp 7 dead 32 recovered	9th= 9/235 27 hosp 7 dead 49 recovered	10th= 11/246 28 hosp 7 dead 55 recovered	11th= 11/257 31 hosp 8 dead 63 recovered	12th= 15/272 31 hosp 8 dead 66 recovered
13th= 5/277 32 Hosp 8 dead 85 Recovered	14th = 8/285 32 Hosp 9 dead 98 Recovered	15th= 8/293 34 Hosp 9 dead 106 Recovered	16th= 7/300 35 hosp 9 dead 110 recovered
		Hospital and dead figures are total to date, not new on that date

The link I've been using to get the State isn't showing the charts they've been showing.  There's a space that suggests where it should be, but it's not loading.  Below that is another chart on hospitalizations, which I haven't seen before.

[I FOUND THE PAGE.  It was a link that said:

"To view the dashboard below externally or in Internet Explorer please visit this link.Preferred browsers include Firefox, Chrome, Edge, and Safari."

Since I'm using Safari and didn't need to see it externally, I didn't think it applied to me.  But finally I tried it and got the page that's been there every day. So I'll add it further below. (The screenshot is below, but I couldn't cut and paste the interactive page like I've been doing.)]

Poking around I found this abbreviated chart which gives the basic numbers I've been tracking, except the data on number of tests.  This charts lets me do the Calendar Chart at the top, and all but the number of tests in the day-by-day chart below.

I've also found data sets and graphs - many of which I can't figure out because the X axis isn't labeled in a way I can understand.

Maybe it's obvious and I'm missing something. OK, I get the Y axis (on the left) is the count of cases.  But I don't know what the X-axis represents.  What is 0-20 or the other ranges?  Is this over time?   Perhaps someone can explain it in the comments.  (You can leave an anonymous comment, though it's nice if you leave a name or initial in the comment.)

All I can give you today is the screenshot above.  If you click it, it should enlarge and focus.


Here's my day-by-day chart.

Alaska Covid-19 Data NewFor... by Steve on Scribd

Alaska COVID-19 Count Wednesday April 15, 2020 - 8 More Cases, 106 Recovered

As I post the State's new stats, I'm also listening to  Facebook Live coverage of a protest at the Michigan state capital in Lansing against the restrictions that Governor Whitmer put in place.  Here's a screenshot.  These people mostly are not social distancing or using face masks.



My calendar chart

CONFIRMED COVID-19 CASES ALASKA MARCH/APRIL 2020
Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
new/total	hos=hospital		12th  = 0/0	13th = 1/1	14th = 0/1	15th = 0/1
16th = 0/1	17th = 2/3	18th = 3/6	19th = 3/9	20th = 3/12	21st= 2/14	22nd= 8/22
23rd=14/36	24th =6/42 1 hos 1 dead	25th = 17/59 3 hos 1 dead	26th = 10/69 3 hos 1 dead	27th =16/89 5 hos 2 dead	28th = 13/102 6 hos 2 dead	29th=12/114 7 hos  3 dead
30th=5/119 7 hos 3 dead	31st= 14/133 9 hos 3 dead
April 2020		1st=  10/143 9 hos 3 dead	2nd=8(6)/149 13 hos 3 dead	3rd=8(11)157 15 hos 3 dead	4th=15/171 16 hos 5 dead	5th=14/185 20 hos 6 dead
6th=6/191 23 hosp 6 dead	7th= 22/213 23 hosp 6 Dead29 recovered	8th= 13/226 27 hosp 7 dead 32 recovered	9th= 9/235 27 hosp 7 dead 49 recovered	10th=11/246 28 hosp 7 dead 55 recovered	11th=11/257 31 hosp 8 dead 63 recovered	12th= 15/272 31 hosp 8 dead 66 recovered
13th= 5/277 32 Hosp 8 dead 85 Recovered	14th = 8/285 32 Hosp 9 dead 98 Recovered	15th= 8/293 34 Hosp 9 dead 106 Recovered
		Hospital and dead figures are total to date, not new on that date

State Charts

Above is the screenshot of today's main chart at the state website. You can enlarge and focus by clicking on it.  I put it here so I can check future reports against past reports.  

I've clicked on different boxes so that you see "New Cases" above instead of the default "Total Cases" (293) and I've changed the default testing window to 'Cumulative Testing."

I'd note that the State site has a lot more info than I'm duplicating here.  The version below is interactive.  Scroll right to see the rest of it.  But remember to scroll back to the left to see the rest of this post.  .

My day-by-day chart

Alaska Covid-19 Data NewFor... by Steve on Scribd

Birds and Cats: Hairy Woodpeckers Are Much Bigger Than Downey's - Someone's Missing Their Cat

Whenever we spot a woodpecker in the backyard, it looks a lot like this one.  The bird books identify this as either a Downey or a hairy woodpecker.  We've decided, in the past, it's been a Downey, because the beak was short.

Well, the other day this giant woodpecker was in the back.  After some uncertainty, we finally figured out it was a Hairy woodpecker.  There is just no mistaking one from the other because of the size.  Of course, you can't always be sure how big a bird is off in the distance.  But clearly this one was significantly larger than the other ones we've seen.  And if you look closely the beak is almost as long as the rest of his head.

The magpies that have been upturning leaves in the yard as the snow melts, and hop about the branches in the trees were there too.  And while they watched the woodpecker, they kept a safe social distance for the 15 minutes or so the woodpecker was there.

Here's a Downey that visited last September.  He's much closer to me than the Hairy, and significantly smaller.  (The book says Downey's are about 6 inches and Hairy's are about 9 inches)

I saw this ad the other day in the newspaper.  It's just another ad for a lost cat.  Until you see the date.  Five years is a long time.

I did try to call to find out the story but I got a recording saying the person wasn't accepting calls at this time.

Alaska COVID-19 Count Tuesday April 14, 2020 - 5 More Cases, 1 Death, 85 Recovered

I'm not an epidemiologist, but it looks like the cases are NOT increasing exponentially, nor the deaths.  And one third of the identified cases have recovered.

Social distancing seems to be working.  I got this poster from a friend about a week ago.  Let's keep it up and keep our hospitalizations spaced out over time so that the hospitals don't get overcrowded.  And so the extra spaces prepared just in case - like the UAA Sports Center - don't have to be used.





My calendar chart

CONFIRMED COVID-19 CASES ALASKA MARCH/APRIL 2020
Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
new/total	hos=hospital		12th  = 0/0	13th = 1/1	14th = 0/1	15th = 0/1
16th = 0/1	17th = 2/3	18th = 3/6	19th = 3/9	20th = 3/12	21st= 2/14	22nd= 8/22
23rd=14/36	24th =6/42 1 hos 1 dead	25th = 17/59 3 hos 1 dead	26th = 10/69 3 hos 1 dead	27th =16/89 5 hos 2 dead	28th = 13/102 6 hos 2 dead	29th=12/114 7 hos  3 dead
30th=5/119 7 hos 3 dead	31st= 14/133 9 hos 3 dead
April 2020		1st=  10/143 9 hos 3 dead	2nd=8(6)/149 13 hos 3 dead	3rd=8(11)157 15 hos 3 dead	4th=15/171 16 hos 5 dead	5th=14/185 20 hos 6 dead
6th= 6/191 23 hosp 6 dead	7th= 22/213 23 hosp 6 Dead29 recovered	8th= 13/226 27 hosp 7 dead 32 recovered	9th= 9/235 27 hosp 7 dead 49 recovered	10th=11/246 28 hosp 7 dead 55 recovered	11th=11/257 31 hosp 8 dead 63 recovered	12th= 15/272 31 hosp 8 dead 66 recovered
13th= 5/277 32 Hosp 8 dead recovered 85	14th = 8/285 32 Hosp 9 dead Recovered 98
		Hospital and dead figures are total to date, not new on that date

The State's charts

Above is the screenshot of today's main chart at the state website. You can enlarge and focus by clicking on it.  I put it here so I can check future reports against past reports.  

I'd note that the State site has a lot more info than I'm duplicating here.  The version below is interactive.  Scroll right to see the rest of it.  But remember to scroll back to the left to see the rest of this post.  .

Cases depicted above represent permanent residency of the infected person, and may not reflect where the person is located currently, or was located when exposed or diagnosed.

Alaska Covid-19 Data NewFor... by Steve on Scribd

My numbers of Total Tests to date varies a bit from the State's numbers.  I take my numbers daily from the chart of Total Tests Combined.  My guess is that those numbers get adjusted by the State because they come in at different times and they're trying to get them to reflect when people were tested.  I'm going to leave mine to reflect what was reported on a given day.  Which means there are fewer tests on my chart on April 13 than on April 12.

It Doesn't Take That Long To Catch Up With Key People's Backgrounds - Mitch McConnell and Gretchen Whitmer

If anyone asks you about specific reasons Senator McConnell shouldn't be reelected, this article in the New Yorker by Jane Mayer will give a long, long list.

"The costs of the Senate’s dysfunction stretch in all directions, and include America’s vulnerability in the face of the covid-19 outbreak. For seven years after Obama’s signature domestic achievement, the Affordable Care Act, passed, in 2010, Republicans in Congress tried at least sixty times to repeal it. In 2017, McConnell, who called it “the worst bill in modern history,” led the charge again and, among other things, personally introduced a little-noticed amendment to eliminate the Prevention and Public Health Fund at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which provided grants to states for detecting and responding to infectious-disease outbreaks, among other things. The fund received approximately a billion dollars a year and constituted more than twelve per cent of the C.D.C.’s annual budget. Almost two-thirds of the money went to state and local health departments, including a program called Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity for Prevention and Control of Emerging Infectious Diseases, in Kentucky.
Hundreds of health organizations, including the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, sent a letter to McConnell and other congressional leaders, warning them of “dire consequences” if the Prevention Fund was eliminated. Public-health programs dealing with infectious-disease outbreaks had never been restored to the levels they were at before the 2008 crash and were “critically underfunded.” The letter concluded, “Eliminating the Prevention Fund would be disastrous.”
In a column in Forbes, Judy Stone, an infectious-disease specialist, asked, “Worried about bird flu coming from Asia? Ebola? Zika? You damn well should be. Monitoring and control will be slashed by the Senate proposal and outbreaks of illness (infectious and other) will undoubtedly worsen.” The cuts, she wrote, were 'unconscionable—particularly given that the savings will go to tax cuts for the wealthiest rather than meeting the basic health needs of the public.'”

And if you hear the name Gretchen Whitmer and you're wondering why a first term governor is being considered by Biden for his number two spot, Politico had a long piece on Gretchen Whitmer.  Here's just a snippet:

"Whitmer’s journey to this office begins with her father, Richard, a Lansing legend who worked for Governors George Romney and William Milliken. Long before he became one of the state’s private sector heavyweights—president and CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan—Dick Whitmer was a trained lawyer who rose up the governmental ranks to eventually lead the Department of Commerce.
His wife, Sherry Whitmer, was a powerhouse in her own right, an assistant attorney general under Frank Kelley, Michigan’s longest-serving attorney general and a godfather figure to young Gretchen and her two siblings. Although Dick and Sherry Whitmer divorced when Gretchen was 10, they instilled in their children a shared love of public service and a shared set of values.
“Neither one of them were ideologues. My mom probably would have been described like a Reagan Democrat, and my dad was a Milliken Republican,” Whitmer says, leaning forward on a blue-cushioned chair. “In Michigan, that’s theoretically a Democrat and a Republican, but it’s pretty close on the scale.”
The eldest Whitmer child grew up harboring no political convictions, much less political aspirations. She dreamed of being a sportscaster for ESPN. This owed to no particular athletic prowess; her adolescent nickname was “Gretchen Gravity,” a nod to her frequent falls, and overall lack of coordination. (These days she goes strictly by “Gretchen”—or sometimes, in an exaggerated Midwestern twang, “Gee Dubya.”)"