The Herald's Weekly Virus Update

The Morrisons Cove Herald again is providing articles about the coronavirus. The information below is the latest that could be included in this week’s edition.

AS OF 8:30 A.M. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29

Blair County

• 21 cases confirmed, up from 14 cases confirmed, 0 deaths

Bedford County

• 22 cases confirmed, up from 16 cases, 1 death

Nearby counties

Cambria: 22 cases, up from 20; 2 deaths

Somerset: 26 cases, up from 19 cases; 0 deaths

Huntingdon: 26 cases, up from 13; 0 deaths

Fulton: 3 cases, up from 2 last week; 0 deaths

Centre: 93 cases, up from 77; 2 deaths

Pa. Statewide

• Total of 43,264 cases, up from 34,528 last Wednesday

• 1,716 deaths, up from 1,564 last Wednesday

•  165,824 Pa. patients who have tested negative to date, up from 132,323 last Wednesday

• Pa. area with most cases: Philadelphia, 25,733, up from 9,391; with 276 deaths, up from 131 deaths

• Of patients who have tested positive to date the age breakdown is:

Age Range / ​Percent of Cases

0-4 < 1%

5-12 < 1%

13-18 1%

19-24 6%

25-49 38%

50-64 27%

65+ 26%

These numbers have been stable for the last three weeks.

Nearby states

New York: 295,106 cases, up from 258,589; 23,033 deaths, up from 19,118

New Jersey: 113,856 cases, up from 92,387; 6,442 deaths, up from 4,753

United States

• 1,008,000 cases, up from 813,000; 58,009 deaths, up from 44,673

Worldwide

• 3,126,284 cases, up from 2,570,580; 217,328 deaths, up from 178,079

Latest developments

• It has been 100 days since a 35-year-old man presented to an urgent care clinic in Snohomish County, Wash., with a four-day history of cough and fever and tested positive for the virus. His was the first case to be detected. Since then, more than one million people had tested positive in the United States, according to the New York Times.

• Government reports showed Wednesday morning that the U.S. economy shrank at a 4.8 percent annual rate in the first quarter — its biggest contraction since the great recession. U.S. gross domestic product, the broadest measure of goods and services produced in the economy, fell at a 4.8 percent annual rate in the first quarter of the year, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. That is the first decline since 2014, and the worst quarterly contraction since the country was in a deep recession more than a decade ago.

• The World Health Organization on Saturday said there was not enough evidence that a person who has recovered from covid-19 is immune from a second infection.

• President Trump tweeted Saturday that he thinks the White House coronavirus briefings are a waste of time, blaming the press pool for “hostile questions.”

• Three of the nation’s largest meat processors failed to provide protective gear to all workers, and some employees say they were told to continue working in crowded plants even while sick as the coronavirus spread around the country, a Washington Post investigation has found.

• Physicians report that young and middle-aged people, barely sick with covid-19, are dying of strokes.

• Georgia has become a flash point in the battle over whether it is time to remove the shutdown orders that have kept much of the country indoors.

• White House officials are debating a “liability shield” that would prevent businesses from being sued by customers who contract the coronavirus.

• The number of total deaths in seven states hit hard by the coronavirus was nearly 50 percent higher than normal over a five-week span during the pandemic, according to statistics released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday. There were 9,000 more deaths in those states than the official counts of coronavirus deaths suggest, the New York Times reported Wednesday morning. The newly released data is partial and most likely undercounts the recent death toll, but it still illustrates how the virus is causing a surge in deaths. From March 8 through April 11, provisional deaths from all causes soared far above their normal levels in Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey and New York.

• The Internal Revenue Service is asking thousands of employees to return to the workplace starting Monday, according to the agency and an internal memo that was circulated by lawmakers Saturday.

• Volkswagen, the world’s largest carmaker, said that vehicle sales fell 25 percent in the first three months of the year, a vivid indication of the havoc that the coronavirus is causing throughout the auto industry.

Sources: Washington Post, New York Times, Pa. Department of Health