Wednesday Morning C-19 Update

NOTE - Below is a radio-friendly notepad used on the Need To Know Morning Show 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 9
IN MINNESOTA - 9 FATALITIES... NOW A TOTAL OF 79
IN SOUTH DAKOTA - NO NEW DEATHS, STILL A TOTAL OF 6
ACROSS THE U-S..... THE HIGHEST DAILY REPORT YET....NEARLY 23 HUNDRED BRINGING THE TOTAL PAST THE 25-THOUSAND MARK SO FAR....
ACROSS THE WORLD TUESDAY, 64-HUNDRED HAVE DIED, MAKING A TOTAL OF JUST OVER 125-THOUSAND

NEW CASES TUESDAY -
10 IN NORTH DAKOTA....7 OF THEM IN CASS COUNTY.... THERE HAVE NOW BEEN 341 ACROSS THE STATE TO TEST POSITIVE
45 IN MINNESOTA, A SECOND STRAIGHT DAY OF WELL BELOW THE RECENT TREND......A TOTAL NOW OF 1,695. ...IN CLAY COUNTY, 2 NEW CASES TUESDAY, A TOTAL OF 42.
IN SD, 120 NEW CASES, 988 TOTAL
ACROSS THE US....ABOUT 24-THOUSAND WITH 611-THOUSAND TOTAL....
ACROSS THE WORLD...68,000 WITH A TOTAL OF 1.9 MILLION SINCE THIS BEGAN.

THE NUMBER HOSPITALIZED THIS MORNING -
IN NORTH DAKOTA THERE IS NO CHANGE....STILL 13 PEOPLE IN THE HOSPITAL
IN MN, 177 ARE IN HOSPITAL CARE, UP 20 FROM THE DAY BEFORE
ACROSS THE COUNTRY, JUST OVER 13,000 ARE IN SERIOUS OR CRITICAL CONDITION...THAT'S UP 500 FROM MONDAY
AND WORLDWIDE, THE NUMBER IS JUST OVER 51-THOUSAND

AND IN THE U-S, NEARLY 38-THOUSAND HAVE RECOVERED, WHILE WORLDWIDE THAT NUMBER IS JUST OVER 467-THOUSAND.

ON THE TRENDLINES THIS MORNING:

NORTH DAKOTA RETURNED TO THE MEAN TUESDAY IN NUMBER OF NEW CASES, WITH 10.....ON MONDAY, DUE TO SOME CONCENTRATED TESTING IN HIGH POSITIVE AREAS THAT NUMBER WAS 23.....IT HAD BEEN 15 OR LOWER FIVE OF THE PREVIOUS SIX DAYS.
CASS COUNTY NOW HAS 107 OF THE STATE'S 341 PEOPLE TO TEST POSITIVE IN NORTH DAKOTA....
IN ND, THERE HAVE BEEN POSITIVE CONFIRMATIONS IN 31 OF THE STATE'S 53 COUNTIES.
IN MN, BACK TO BACK DAYS OF WELL UNDER THE AVERAGE IN NEW CASES ..THE STATE HAD BEEN TRENDING CLOSE TO 100 PER DAY LAST WEEK, BUT MONDAY 29 AND TUESDAY 45....
THE 9 DEATHS IN MN MONDAY IS THE SECOND HIGHEST SINGLE DAY TOTAL YET.....THE HIGH IS 11 SET ON APRIL 9
WITH 9 DEATHS, 2.6% OF THOSE TO TEST POSITIVE HAVE DIED
THE U-S DEATH TOTAL OF JUST OVER 25-THOUSAND MEANS THE U-S CONTINUES TO HAVE MORE DEATHS FROM THE VIRUS THAN ANY OTHER COUNTRY.....IN TERMS OF CASES PER CAPITA, THE U-S STANDS JUST 15...UP 4 SPOTS FROM THE DAY BEFORE

SOME COMPARISONS FOR YOU....THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION SAYS BETWEEN 300-THOUSAND AND 650-THOUSAND PEOPLE DIE OF THE FLU WORLDWIDE EACH YEAR...WE ARE NOW JUST OVER 114-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 22-THOUSAND....

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LET'S TAKE A LOOK AT YOUR WEDNESDAY MORNING HEADLINES.

ND GOVERNOR DOUG BURGUM SAYS HE'LL ANNOUNCE TODAY WHAT CHANGES HE'LL MAKE TO THE STATE'S PARTIAL BUSINESS CLOSURE WHICH EXPIRES ON MONDAY......BUT TUESDAY AT HIS DAILY PRESS CONFERENCE, HE SAID SOME KEY PIECES NEED TO BE IN PLACE TO GIVE THE ALL CLEAR, AND HE'S NOT SEEING THEM YET....ITEM NUMBER ONE.... WE NEED TO BE ABLE TO GIVE LOW COST MASS TESTING TO A LOT OF PEOPLE......SOT

BURGUM AND HIS CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER TAMMY MILLER, OUTLINED THE STATE'S Plans for dealing with a worst-case scenario....The Fargodome and the University of Mary's fieldhouse in Bismarck have been set up as field hospitals in case the state's hospitals are overwhelmed, but Miller identified six other locations that could be transformed into temporary low-care hospitals.....MILLER SHE SAID SHE DIDN'T ANTICIPATE THESE FACILIITES WOULD BE NEEDED.... less than 1% of the STATE'S 2,100 hospital beds are occupied by COVID-19 patients

IN MINNESOTA TUESDAY, 9 DEATHS....Six were Hennepin County residents, five of whom were in the eighties..... One was in their nineties..........Infectious Disease Director Kris Ehresmann said of the 79 people who have died, 57 have been associated with long-term care facilities... Nearly all of the people who have died had underlying health conditions, and their median age is 87.

Majorities of the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Richfield city councils have signed a letter to Gov. Tim Walz calling for an executive order suspending rent payments and mortgage payments for the duration of the economic crisis caused by COVID-19.   the rent cancellation would follow on the current moratorium on evictions that Walz signed March 23.

MN Governor tim walz said Tuesday he wants to see restaurants open soon...but it's going to be a slow rollout and a careful one...SOT

Minnesota’s unemployment insurance program has reached another unfortunate milestone.  IN THE LAST 30 DAYS ABOUT 452-THOUSAND PEOPLE HAVE APPLIED FOR BENEFITS....MORE THAN TWICE THE NUMBER TO APPLY IN ALL OF 2019.... That's about 14 percent of the state’s labor force.

THE FARGO PARK BOARD VOTED UNANIMOUSLY LAST NIGHT TO CLOSE all playgrounds in city parks DUE TO THE VIRUS...SAYING IT WOULD BE IMPOSIBLE TO KEEP THE PLAYGROUND EQUIPMENT CLEAN.....THE FORUM REPORTS THEY WILL NOT PUT OUT YELLOW TAPE AROND THE PLAYGROUND, BUT WILL PUT UP A SIGN SAYING THE EQUIPMENT IS NOT TO BE USED....AS FOR GOLF COURSES, THE CURRENT PLAN IS TO BAN CARTS, AND driving ranges and practice greens will be off limits, social distancing rules will be enforced and no walk-ins will be allowed on the courses. Tee times must be made online or called in, AND GOLFERS WILL BE ASKED TO SHOW UP JUST five minutes before their tee times.

MAYO CLINIC OFFICIALS SAY THEY BELIEVE THEY CAN MEET THE QUOTA OF TESTING KITS NEEDED FOR THE GOVERNOR TO REOPEN MINNESOTA'S ECONOMY....GOVERNOR TIM WALZ HAS SAID THAT HE WANTS 5,000 KITS A DAY WITH ANTIBODY TESTING BEFORE HE'LL RELAX BUSINESS RESTRICTIONS...MAYO SAYS IT COULD POTENTIALLY SUPPLY 10-THOUSAND PER DAY.

President Donald Trump announced a halt to U.S. payments to the World Health Organization pending a review of its warnings about the coronavirus and China.  he said the virus could have been contained at its source and lives could have been spared had the U.N. health agency done a better job investigating reports coming out of China.

Ten U.S. airlines have reached an agreement in principle to accept $25 billion in grants from the government....Airlines are eligible to receive payouts equal to their payroll costs between April and October of last year. That puts Delta and American in line to receive a maximum of almost $7 billion each, with an additional $6.5 billion for United... Southwest could get up to almost $4.3 billion; JetBlue and Alaska are each in line to see more than $1 billion each.

The Food and Drug Administration HAS approved the first saliva-based coronavirus test...., Rutgers University SAYS Current testing requires health professionals to take samples from a patient’s nose or throat, AND THEN WORKERS HAVE TO THROW AWAY THE GLOVES AND MASKS...But with this test, patients will spit in a tube several times and give it to the health professional for testing, making it less likely they will get infected...THE LEAD DOCTOR SAYS Saliva testing will help with the global shortage of swabs for sampling and increase testing of patients, and it will not require health care professionals to be put at risk to collect samples.

HAVE YOU BOOKED A CRUISE LATELY?  A LOT OF PEOPLE HAVE.....Even as the coronavirus pandemic brings the cruise industry to a global standstill, customers are already booking for 2021...AND SALES ARE STRONG - SAYS Carnival CEO Arnold Donald ON CNBC...

A POSITIVE DAY ON WALL STREET SAW THE DOW JONES CLOSE UP 558 POINTS TO FINISH AT JUST UNDER 24-THOUSAND......THE SP 500 AND THE NASDAQ WERE UP EVEN HIGHER, BOTH OVER 3%....

A NEW report ABOUT THE CONCERT INDUSTRY SAYS THAT REVENUE FOR SHOWS THIS YEAR COULD BE down by as much as $9 billion THIS YEAR....THAT WOULD BE A a decline without parallel in the modern music business......The pandemic has upended what should have been a banner year for the concert business. The top 100 tours were up nearly 11% compared to the same time last year, with huge tours from the likes of Elton John, the Rolling Stones and the Eagles all scheduled for summer