Daily Update - April 27th I write a daily newsletter with verified statistics & interesting news about Covid. We only show data related to death tolls; data is provided by the John Hopkins University. My background is in statistical analysis & political science. Thank you for supporting our newsletter! If you enjoy reading it, maybe others would as well! Take a second to forward this email to people who would like it ( sign up here ) , or give us feedback by replying to this email! 🗞️ SUMMARY ANALYSIS 🗞️ 🌎 Yesterday, the global death toll from Coronavirus reached 206,000. New Zealand says it has 'won the battle' against transmission and prepares to move out of its strict lockdown measures. The government reported only one new confirmed case of Covid-19 and said it had eliminated the virus. On Monday, New Zealand will lift its level-4 lockdown which has been in place for more than four weeks. Prime minister Jacinda Ardern said the nation had “won the battle” against widespread community transmission.



Global coronavirus death toll could be 60% higher than reported. The FT reports Mortality statistics show 122,000 deaths in excess of normal levels across 14 countries.



More US states to end lockdown as economy crumbles. Colorado, Mississippi, Minnesota, Montana and Tennessee will join other US states in the lifting of lockdown restrictions, as economists predict an unemployment rate of 16% or higher for the month of April. New York governor Andrew Cuomo said some regions of the state might qualify to open sooner “with certain precautions”.



Trump denies he will fire his health chief. US president Donald Trump, who for a second day skipped the White House press briefing, on Twitter denied reports that he planned to fire health and human services secretary Alex Azar. He said Azar was doing “an excellent job!”.



A million Australians downloaded the CovidSafe tracking app. Health minister said 1.13 million Australians downloaded the tracing app CovidSafe in a day, nearly 4.5% of the country’s population.



British PM returns to Downing Street. Boris Johnson returned to Downing Street on Sunday night for the first time since he was admitted to hospital with Covid-19 on 6 April.



Lebanon’s roads blocked in protest at dire economy. Demonstrators blocked roads through Lebanon late on Sunday to protest against the deteriorating economic situation, despite a lockdown and curfew imposed because of the coronavirus. Lebanon’s worst economic crisis since the 1975-90 civil war is now compounded by the coronavirus lockdown. Forty-five per cent of the population are in poverty, according to official estimates. Its economy is forecast to contract 12% in 2020, according to the International Monetary Fund.



European countries announce easing of lockdown measures. Italy recorded lowest daily deaths since mid-March and prime minister Giuseppe Conte told the nation “if you love Italy, maintain distance” as he announced a plan that will see the country slowly ease lockdown measures from 4 May. The prime minister of France, Edouard Philippe, will on Tuesday present a national strategy for emerging from the coronavirus lockdown to the national assembly, while Spain partially relaxed its lockdown as its daily death toll dropped below 300 for the first time in weeks.



Egypt asks the IMF for a bailout loan. Egypt declared on Sunday that it had asked the International Monitory Fund (IMF) for financial assistance to deal with the economic fallout caused by the coronavirus. Neither Egypt nor the IMF specified the size of the one-year bailout loan. 📊 WORLD STATISTICS 📊 💡 GRAPH OF THE DAY 💡 Trend of cases of Covid-19 across US states Source: Covid Act Now 🔥 MUST READS 🔥 🔥What if Covid-19 isn't our biggest threat? For a while now, a pandemic has been one of the two most prominent catastrophic threats in the government’s risk register (the other is a massive cyberattack). An Australian based at Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute, Thus Ord is one of a tiny number of academics working in the field of existential risk assessment. It’s a discipline that takes in everything from stellar explosions right down to rogue microbes, from supervolcanoes to artificial superintelligence. Thus Ord argues in his new book we are much less adept at anticipating potential catastrophes that have no precedent in living memory. “Given everything I know,” he writes, “I put the existential risk this century at around one in six.” A must-read.



🔥 The demand for parking is down 90% — and across America, entrepreneurs are finding ways to repurpose empty lots. For instance, Boxcar built out a business that lets work commuters reserve parking spaces near train stations and other big transport hubs. On days when they don’t want to drive, Boxcar offers shuttles, mainly in the New York City area. Boxcar saw its revenues fall to zero with Covid-19. So Boxcar liquidated the money they’d allocated for marketing and advertising — about $20k — and they put it toward a last-ditch pivot: Turning those unused parking lots and commuter buses into a grocery delivery service. “In the last two weeks we’ve built a business that’s twice as large and significantly more profitable than our parking business, which we built over the last three years,” said Joe Colangelo, Boxcar’s CEO. For a while now, a pandemic has been one of the two most prominent catastrophic threats in the government’s risk register (the other is a massive cyberattack). An Australian based at Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute, Thus Ord is one of a tiny number of academics working in the field of existential risk assessment. It’s a discipline that takes in everything from stellar explosions right down to rogue microbes, from supervolcanoes to artificial superintelligence. Thus Ord argues in his new book we are much less adept at anticipating potential catastrophes that have no precedent in living memory. “Given everything I know,” he writes, “I put the existential risk this century at around one in six.” A must-read. Link to article For instance, Boxcar built out a business that lets work commuters reserve parking spaces near train stations and other big transport hubs. On days when they don’t want to drive, Boxcar offers shuttles, mainly in the New York City area. Boxcar saw its revenues fall to zero with Covid-19. So Boxcar liquidated the money they’d allocated for marketing and advertising — about $20k — and they put it toward a last-ditch pivot: Turning those unused parking lots and commuter buses into a grocery delivery service. “In the last two weeks we’ve built a business that’s twice as large and significantly more profitable than our parking business, which we built over the last three years,” said Joe Colangelo, Boxcar’s CEO. Link to article 📚 GOOD READS 📚 ‘Quarantine fatigue’: Researchers find more Americans venturing out against coronavirus stay-at-home orders. Link to article



📚COVID-19: the greater threat to society of social distancing. Authors argue that governments must acknowledge that the demand for social distancing runs counter to the evolved structure of human cognition. Secondly, nowadays, free access to the Internet is not only a prerequisite for freedom of speech. In the present situation, it is also making a positive contribution to public health.



📚Visualizing the history of pandemics. Link to article



📚 Drive-in movies are proving popular in a pandemic—just like 70 years ago. Link to article



📚 More than 2m operations cancelled as NHS fights Covid-19. Backlog of procedures in England could cost NHS £3bn to work through after crisis.



📚 32 days on a ventilator: one Covid patient’s fight to breathe again. Jim Bello, 49 and healthy, fell gravely ill, highlighting agonizing mysteries of the coronavirus. Doctors’ relentless effort to save him was a roller-coaster of devastating and triumphant twists.



📚Gates Foundation will focus entirely on coronavirus. Bill Gates says new commitment means the charity’s other public health work will suffer



📚Many failures combined to unleash death on Italy’s Lombardy. Virologists and epidemiologists say what went wrong there will be studied for years, given how the outbreak overwhelmed a medical system long considered one of Europe’s best, while in the neighboring Veneto region, the impact was significantly more controlled.



📚Dutch students sail home across the Atlantic due to coronavirus. Link to article



📚Inside the dystopian, post-lockdown world of Wuhan. This Bloomberg story is one of the most detailed looks at what daily life is like in Wuhan. The city has reopened with restrictions. People are returning to their offices, but many avoid taking the elevator. While stores and restaurants are open, not many people are visiting. Authors argue that governments must acknowledge that the demand for social distancing runs counter to the evolved structure of human cognition. Secondly, nowadays, free access to the Internet is not only a prerequisite for freedom of speech. In the present situation, it is also making a positive contribution to public health. Link to article Backlog of procedures in England could cost NHS £3bn to work through after crisis. Link to article Jim Bello, 49 and healthy, fell gravely ill, highlighting agonizing mysteries of the coronavirus. Doctors’ relentless effort to save him was a roller-coaster of devastating and triumphant twists. Link to article Bill Gates says new commitment means the charity’s other public health work will suffer Link to article Virologists and epidemiologists say what went wrong there will be studied for years, given how the outbreak overwhelmed a medical system long considered one of Europe’s best, while in the neighboring Veneto region, the impact was significantly more controlled. Link to article This Bloomberg story is one of the most detailed looks at what daily life is like in Wuhan. The city has reopened with restrictions. People are returning to their offices, but many avoid taking the elevator. While stores and restaurants are open, not many people are visiting. Link to article

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