Saturday Night C-19 Update

NOTE - Below is a radio-friendly notepad used on The Nightly Review tonight on AM1100 The Flag WZFG.  Spelling, punctuation, etc are not edited.  

LETS TAKE A LOOK AT THE UP TO THE MINUTE NUMBERS.....FIRST THE FATALITIES

• IN NORTH DAKOTA - NO NEW DEATHS, STILL A TOTAL OF 7
• IN MINNESOTA - 7 TODAY, NOW 64 TOTAL
• IN SOUTH DAKOTA - NO NEW DEATHS, STILL A TOTAL OF 6
• ACROSS THE U-S..... 1,766 MAKING THIS THE DAY WE GO OVER 20-THOUSAND...THE TOTAL RIGHT NOW ABOUT 20,400....
• ACROSS THE WORLD TONIGHT, 58-HUNDRED HAVE DIED, MAKING A TOTAL OF JUST OVER 108-THOUSAND

NEW CASES TODAY -

• 15 IN NORTH DAKOTA.... THERE HAVE NOW BEEN 293 ACROSS THE STATE TO TEST POSITIVE
• IN MINNESOTA 93 NEW POSITIVE.... 1,427 IN ALL
• IN SD, 90 NEW CASES, 626 TOTAL
• ACROSS THE US....27,508 WITH 33-THOUSAND TOTAL
• ACROSS THE WORLD...76,000 WITH A TOTAL OF 1.8 MILLION SINCE THIS BEGAN.

THE NUMBER HOSPITALIZED TONIGHT -

• IN NORTH DAKOTA THERE ARE 10 PEOPLE IN THE HOSPITAL
• IN MN, 145 ARE IN HOSPITAL CARE
• ACROSS THE COUNTRY, JUST OVER 11-THOUSAND ARE IN SERIOUS OR CRITICAL CONDITION
• AND WORLDWIDE, THE NUMBER IS JUST OVER 50-THOUSAND

AND IN THE U-S, NEARLY 30-THOUSAND HAVE RECOVERED, WHILE WORLDWIDE THAT NUMBER IS JUST OVER 400-THOUSAND.ON THE TRENDLINES TONIGHT:

• THE NUMBER OF HOSPITALIZED IN ND CONTINUES TO DECLINE....ON TUESDAY THE NUMBER WAS 18, BUT FROM THERE IT'S GONE 16 - 14 - 13 AND NOW TODAY 10.
• IN MN, THERE ARE 69 IN ICU TONIGHT, THAT BREAKS A TREND THE LAST 4 DAYS THAT HAD THAT NUMBER AT EITHER 63 OR 64.
• NORTH DAKOTA HIT THE 10-THOUSAND TEST MARK TONIGHT....WITH 293 POSITIVES, THE POSITIVE RATE IS 2.9%
• WITH 7 DEATHS, 2.4% OF THOSE TO TEST POSITIVE HAVE DIED
• 7 OF THE 15 POSITIVES TODAY IN NORTH DAKOTA ARE IN CASS COUNTY....THAT'S 95 OF THE 293, MEANING MORE THAN A THIRD OF THE STATE'S POSITIVES ARE IN CASS COUNTY....
• THE U-S DEATH TOTAL OF JUST OVER 20-THOUSAND MEANS THE U-S NOW HAS MORE DEATHS FROM THE VIRUS THAN ANY OTHER COUNTRY. ITALY HAS BEEN IN THAT POSITION, WITH MORE THAN 19K.
• AND THE AVERAGE AGE OF DEATH MOVED UP IN MINNESOTA TODAY, GOING FROM 87 TO 88.

SOME COMPARISONS FOR YOU....THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION SAYS BETWEEN 300-THOUSAND AND 650-THOUSAND PEOPLE DIE OF THE FLU WORLDWIDE EACH YEAR...WE JUST WENT OVER 100-THOUSAND ON THE CORONAVIRUS...IN THE U-S .....THE CDC ESTIMATES THAT ABOUT 40-THOUSAND AMERICANS HAVE DIED OF INFLUENZA SINCE OCTOBER 1...OUR CORONAVIRUS DEATH COUNT IS NOW JUST OVER 20-THOUSAND....***************************LET'S TAKE A LOOK AT YOUR SATURDAY EVENING HEADLINES.WE KNOW MORE ABOUT THE STATE'S 7TH FATALITY....Woman in her 70s from Cass County with underlying health conditions who acquired COVID-19 through community spread.Three of Cass County's new cases came from community spread, and two were due to close contact. Two cases remain under investigation....NORTH DAKOTA GOVERNOR DOUG BURGUM IS EXPECTED TO RELEASE MORE INFORMATION NEXT WEEK ABOUT THE MODELS THAT STATE OFFICIALS ARE USING TO DETERMINE PROJECTIONS AND NEXT STEPS...BURGUM HAS SAID THE PEAK FOR NORTH DAKOTA IS STILL WEEKS OUT.NORTH DAKOTA AND MINNSOTA ARE FIRST AND SECOND AMONG 23 STATES TO REPORT THEIR HOSPITALIZATION RATES TO A NEW TRACKING SYSTEM DESIGNED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA.All seven of those who died IN MN IN THE LAST 24 HOURS were in their 80s or 90s, the Minnesota Department of Health reported Saturday, and six of the seven lived in congregate care settings.About 4% of all tests have come back positive in Minnesota, compared with positive test rates between 7% and 9% in the neighboring states of Iowa, South Dakota and Wisconsin.THE STATE OF MINNESOTA'S RECENT PROJECTIONS SHOW AN EXPECTED 22-THOUSAND MINNESOTANS WILL DIE OF THE VIRUS, EVEN THOUGH AS OF TONIGHT ONLY 64 HAVE DIED....THE PROJECTIONS ALSO SHOW THE PEAK WON'T HIT UNTIL JUNE OR JULY....Health officials acknowledge that their model is pessimistic.SD governor kRISTI NOEM HAS DIRECTED THE Smithfield FOODS MEATPACKING PLANT IN SIOUX FALLS to close for 14 days....THE PLANT IS NOW linked to more than a third of South Dakota's 626 known coronavirus cases....THE PLANT EMPLOYS MORE THAN 37-HUNDRED, BUT 238 HAVE COME DOWN WITH THE VIRUS....The U.S. Department of Education HAS AWARDED a total of $11.4 MILLION to colleges and universities in North Dakota to help students impacted by coronavirus.....THE MONEY WILL GO TO EMERGENCY GRANTS FOR STUDENTS...NDSU RECEIVED THE LARGEST ALLOTMENT, AT 3.8 MILLION....KVRR TV REPORTS THAT The Fargo Theatre is getting a helping hand from big name celebrities.....The theatre received a $2,500 grant as part of a national fund to support art house cinemas that have closed due to the Coronavirus. Contributors include the Criterion Collection and Oscar-nominated directors Christopher Nolan, and Wes Anderson.More than half of a group of severely ill coronavirus patients improved after receiving THE experimental drug REMDESIVIR....The results published by the New England Journal of Medicine show the test group had 53 patients, ages 23 to 82....  After 18 days on average, 36 patients, needed less oxygen or breathing machine support.....8 did have their condition worsen....the DRUG IS MADE BY GILEAD SCIENCES....DOCTORS HAVE given it to more than 1,700 patients on a case-by-case emergency basis.President Donald Trump approved a disaster declaration for Wyoming TODAY, 22 days after the first disaster declaration in New York, the epicenter of the virus....THAT MEANS THAT ALL 50 STATES ARE NOW UNDER A MAJOR DISASTER DECLARATION.THE March CONSUMER PRICE INDEX fell 0.4%, slightly more than expected IN THE U-S, as gasoline plummeted and airfares and hotel prices fell by record amounts. 

• The drop was the largest monthly decline since January 2015, and in core inflation, excluding fuel and food, the unexpected 0.1 drop was the first monthly decline since January 2010, according to the Labor Department.
• Economists expect inflation to remain weak as the economy weakens, but some categories, like food, may rise in price.