Dear Reader:

Worldometer: Almost 14.5 million cases worldwide, over 600 thousands death worldwide; approaching 4 million cases and 143 thousand deaths in the US.

Just over 63 thousand new cases and 813 new deaths (roughly a third of the highest number of daily deaths, which was on April 21) were reported yesterday, July 18,  in the US.

Within the US, Florida reported 10,328 new cases and 93 new deaths yesterday, California reported 8,806 new cases and 91 new deaths yesterday. Texas reported 7,945 new cases and 75 new deaths yesterday.

Brazil reported 26,549 new cases and 885 new deaths yesterday. India reported 37,407 new cases yesterday (the highest number so far throughout the pandemic) and 543 new deaths.

A brief history of the pandemic, from Wikipedia Covid-19 Pandemic: The first reports of the current almost 14.5 million global Covid-19 cases and over 600 thousand global deaths took place on December 31, 2019, six months and 19 days ago, when “the World Health Organization (WHO) got reports from health authorities in China of a cluster of viral pneumonia cases of unknown cause in Wuhan, Hubei, and an investigation was launched at the start of January 2020”.

As a result of that investigation, on January 30, 2020, the WHO declared the outbreak a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern”. At the time there were 7,818 thousand confirmed cases globally, affecting 19 countries. The first confirmed death was in Wuhan on January 9, and the first death outside of China occurred on February 1 in the Philippines. On February 25, the WHO declared “the world should do more to prepare for a possible coronavirus pandemic”, stating that while it was too  early to call it a pandemic, countries should be “in a phase of preparedness.” On February 28, WHO officials said the coronavirus threat assessment at the global level would be raised from “high” to “very  high”. On March 11, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic.

On January 31, Italy had its first confirmed cases, two tourists from China. As of March 13, the WHO considered Europe the active center of the pandemic. On March 19, Italy overtook China as the country with the most reported deaths. By March 26, the United States overtook China and Italy with the highest number of confirmed cases in the world, and since then to this very day, July 19, the United States is still the number 1 country as far as the number of Covid-19 cases and deaths. Research indicates that the majority of Covid-19 cases in New York came from European travelers.

anita