Coronavirus Diary Day 27: April 8, 2020 – Parts 1 and 2

Part 1: The Loveliest Days of Spring

Damn, you guys! I totally did not write a blog post yesterday. It’s the first day I’ve missed since starting this journal on March 13. So today, I bring you Parts 1 and 2.

Truth be told, yesterday was a beautiful day.

I started the morning with a run. On my way back to the house, a car pulled over next to me, and it was one of my oldest friends. We maintained at least 10 feet of distance between us, but to have that opportunity to chat in real life with someone other than The Hubs or Ryan was, quite frankly, amazing. I don’t necessarily recommend it, and I certainly didn’t plan for it, but it happened. And it was good.

Later, I took the dog for a long walk.

And after that, I used Zoom to Happy Hour with another one of my favorite people. I sat in my backyard with the computer on my lap and a glass of wine in my hand, and it was glorious.

Anyway, Spring has most definitely arrived in the most glorious of ways. The weather is perfect, the birds are chirping, the trees are blooming, and life is beautiful.

Part 2: The Chronicles of Grocery Shopping

Here’s what I didn’t mention in Part 1. I also went to the grocery store yesterday. I had previously vowed to stretch my shopping excursions to once every 10 days. But milk is kind of a commodity at my house, and we needed that. So, 7 days. I’m OK with that, I guess. I filled my cart, and we’ll try again.

Mostly, it was a decent experience. It wasn’t overly crowded. More than 50% of people wore masks of varying shapes and sizes. I was mostly surprised that I found disinfecting wipes (!!!) which were limited to one per customer.

The checkout clerk was friendly, efficient, and young. She happily chatted away with her (young) bagger and another (young) worker while she rang me up. No masks on any of the 3 of them. They didn’t care. As for me, I kept my distance and wore a mask, took all the necessary precautions, decontaminated when I got home, etc etc etc etc etc etc.

But those 3 supermarket workers? Yeah, they are definitely super spreaders.

But anyway. The last time I reported numbers was 8 days ago. So here goes:

Worldwide COVID-19 Confirmed Cases: 1,508,224 (8 days ago, it was 855,139.)

Worldwide Deaths: 88,280 (8 days ago, it was 42,044.)

USA Cases: 426,300 (8 days ago, it was 186,046.)

USA Deaths: 14,622 (8 days ago, it was 3,807.)

New York State Cases: 149,316 (8 days ago, it was 75,000.)

New York State Deaths: 6,268 (8 days ago, it was 1,550.)

Yesterday, New York State saw its highest number of mortalities, at 779.

Pennsylvania Cases: 16,455 (8 days ago, it was 4,843.)

Pennsylvania Deaths: 309 (8 days ago, it was 63.)

Philadelphia Cases: 4,777 (8 days ago, it was 1,300.)

Philadelphia Deaths: 78 (8 days ago, it was 14.)