May 30 COVID Stats

Let's take a look at yesterday new COVID cases in Canada.

[As always, click on any graph to zoom in.]

She's looking good, Vern.  What about Ontario?

Okay......don't want to jinx anything, but.....

And, of course, over 80% of yesterday's cases were in the Toronto area. but with only 45% of the population.

So as suspected in yesterday's post, because of concerns with "deal shopping", Ontario is going to proceed with regional reopening, but not in areas near Toronto.  That's because us goobering, virus spewing troglodytes might....well, you get the idea.



So looks like my work is almost done here.  Time to get back to normal life......

Day 82

Okay then.  What happened yesterday?

[As always, click on any graph to zoom in.]

Same old, same old.  Maybe boring is good when the trend continues downward. Until they release the hounds, of course.  Which a lot of the provinces are doing.

Ontario...?

Not there yet. But most of it is.  As usual, over 80% of the cases yesterday were in the Toronto area.  And, only in a few "hot spots".

So, at the urging of everywhere else in the province, the Premier is considering doing some regional openings.   He has always been resistant to this due to "deal shopping".

The fear that people in locked down Toronto will travel to near by "open" cities and bring the virus with them.  And from the data, it looks like no one in Toronto social distances anyway, so why would they in other towns.

That's the thinking anyway.


And there were no deaths anywhere in Canada yesterday......

...oh....except in Ontario and Quebec. 


Tragic of course, but for everyone else, let's just keep staying alive, staying alive and on to Day 83.

Hey! Ontario Health Officials Read My Blog!

After calling them out yesterday for obviously fudging the numbers the last two days.....

...I guess they said, "The jig's up, boys, I guess we better start counting them all.  That Arnotti guy is just too clever for us".

And, of course, 85% of those new cases are in the Toronto area. The rest of the province have been good boys and girls, but because of that lazy, big brother, we all get grounded.

Places like poor old North Bay - with a territory the size of the great outdoors - has had.....26 cases.  In total.   Yesterday alone, the Toronto area had ten times that number, 326.

Okay, I hear ya.  On a per captia basis, Toronto is still 7 times higher yesterday.  It likely would have been higher, but North Bay had a new case yesterday.  Likely some guy from Toronto.

But Toronto is now publishing cases counts by neighbourhood.  The darker colours represent higher cases loads.

Of course, this is fraught this controversy.

Some corners are saying these dark blue neighbourhoods are not following the social distancing rules; big families, social gatherings.

Others say these are low income, racialized communities, working low wage, high risk jobs.

The debate will continue.

For Canadian new cases.....

Ontario is some of the spike, but apparently a doctor from New Brunswick went over to Quebec - for personal reasons - caught the virus, returned without 14 day quarantining and now has exposed hundreds of coworkers and patients to the virus.  Already several are infected.

New Brunswick had no active cases, and now......  And they are considering taking legal action against him. Must have moved there from Toronto.



Probably wasn't even a good doctor anyway.....

[Another Mr. Boffo strip from Joe Martin.]

May 27th COVID Stats

New COVID cases in Canada yesterday.....

[As always, click on any graph to zoom in.]

...continuing to trend in the right direction.  But what about Ontario.....?

Wow.  Almost too good to be true.

I hope we don't find out that when we ask how they got such great improvement, they say, "Oh, we just stopped counting. Made all the difference."

It could work in other areas, too....

But even governments aren't foolproof.....

[These both from Joe Martin, creator of the fantastic Mr. Boffo strip.]

May 26th COVID Stats

Looking at new Canadian cases...

[As always, click on any graph to zoom in.]

Not bad.  Continuing to trend lower.  Ontario?

Sweet mama!  At this rate, we could be in negative numbers in a week.  They quoted one mathematician yesterday saying he would actually be afraid of negative numbers.  He would stop at nothing to avoid them.

Ouch.

Looking at the global view, Italy & Spain have been overtaken for the #2 and #3 spots by Brazil (#2) and Russia (#3).   Although on a per capita basis, both their deaths rates are lower than Canada's, and many other country's.

This chart shows deaths per million population on the horizontal axis and cases per million population on the vertical axis.

The US is still the global leader in both number of cases and deaths. 

But Belgium, with a population of over 11 million, seems to be flying under the global media radar, but of countries over 10 million, it has the highest death rate.  But both Spain and Italy (and the UK) continue to have every high cumulative cases and deaths.

But with the way things are going, both Brazil and Russia could catch Canada before the calendar switches to June.

Speaking of that, two people actually got caught stealing a calendar yesterday.  They each got six months.

Time to go. Speaking of that......

As a result of the covidiots that packed a Toronto park on the weekend....

...the city's chief medical officer had a message for them.  She requested that they all self monitor for 14 days.  And she said, please take extra care with hand hygiene.  And make sure you keep six feet apart for people. And if you cannot do this, please wear a mask.

I'm sure she means well.  But if you're somebody that just pinched a loaf on somebody's driveway in the middle of the day, are you thinking, Hand hygiene, oh, I'd forgotten all about that!

Now, our medical officer is about 4'11" and 120 pounds. Perhaps if the premier of the province came down and said...

"Dude, I am going to kick your ass, you hipster doofus!" it may be a more effective message.


But until then.....new COVID cases yesterday.....

Steady as she goes.....


Now, in this global era of pandemic crisis, we have been looking outward as often as inward.  [Ed. Note: Unless someone is unfortunate enough to read this blog, then it is an endless exercise in inward navel gazing.]

Yeah, whatever.  As we know, Europe has been hit hard.  So below is essentially a map of Europe.  With one twist.

The names here are cities from North America, superimposed at their actual latitude.

Some are not necessarily surprising.  Or maybe they are.

Ireland is at the same latitude as Edmonton, Alberta.  Edmonton?  But where is Toronto?

What?  The same latitude as Tuscany?

Chicago    - Rome.
New York - Madrid.

Who'd a thunk it?

Good God, Maude!

Ontario COVID cases are the best!  No one can top us!

And wait for a few more days until the COVIDIOTS from yesterday (below) start showing up at the ER coughing and wheezing.

And as they reported today, because all the bathrooms were closed, folks were peeing and pooping in other people's driveways and backyards.  How's that working for ya?

And as usual, 85% of the new cases are in the Toronto area.


Here is the Canadian view overall.

Trending down, so somebody else must be doing the heavy lifting.

Hmmm...  Ontario is like the older brother that won't leave home. And does nothing but make a mess and all the other brothers have to do his chores.  And he doesn't care.

But we aren't the only ones with COVIDIOTS.  It was the Memorial Day weekend in the US and what a memory it will leave.

This is just one example of a pool party (or is it really a pee party) from one state.  I don't see any masks!!  Or Depends.

I could post many many more, but they won't give me enough storage space on Blogger.

It's sad when the animal kingdom has more sense than some of us do.

Ah Ha!

"We have seen the enemy, as he is us."  [Pogo]

A scene yesterday from one of Toronto's popular parks.  Not a mask to be seen.  And you couldn't fit a shoehorn in anywhere.  Let's see how this plays out in say four or five days.

In other news, COVID cases in Canada.

[As always, click on any graph to zoom in.]

Pretty flat, and that's likely because Ontario has been working overtime to get that average up.

Although somebody has fallen down on the job, as new cases actually dropped yesterday.  Can't blame the good citizens of Toronto, though, as 85% of those 412 cases yesterday were from the Toronto area.

Don't worry, I see that number rising in say four or five days.  A sign of things to come...?

And maybe this is also a sign of the times.

People Helping People?

Although, be pretty hard to cut yourself on those edges.  But if you are close enough to touch the sign, you might also discover that the bridge is out.


Any Port In A Storm?

Maybe that's as good as it gets in....well....wherever that is......


I've Often Wondered That.....

For more signs of the times, but from a previous time, click. And The Sign Says.

Sweet Baby Jesus!

Three days of increases in a row.  And almost two weeks since we hit our low back on May 10th.  Oh, those were the good old days.  The curve had been trending down for over two weeks.

And then - the last two weeks.

So is there some kind of big make-out party going on that I haven't been invited to?

441 new COVID cases in Ontario yesterday, with 360 in - guess - the greater Toronto area.



We need to get back to more of this - neighbours looking out for neighbours.....

Holy cow!  Joggers.......

Jeez Louise

Another 413 new COVID cases in Ontario yesterday, with the focus again on Toronto; 327 in the greater Toronto area. [As always, click on any graph to zoom in.]

But the discouraging part is, the government says - unlike virtually all the other provinces - they don't even know where or why these cases are occurring.  Whereas in other provinces people are getting  their patio shorts out - or on! -  we don't even know why the increases are occurring.

Well I do.  I look out the window.  And unless Toronto has the largest average family size in Canada, lots of people are not social distancing.   And it doesn't look like they even care.

Yesterday I saw three businessmen coming out of a store, at the same time.  Two feet apart, laughing, talking to each other, taking up the sidewalk and, of course, no masks.

I don't think they live together.  I walked out onto the street to get around them.  And gave them the evil stink eye! I'm pretty sure they won't be doing that again. [Ed. note: would you also like a pony?]

Now the health officials aren't a bunch of nincompoops.  The reason they can't tell when or where these cases are occurring is that when interviewed, infected people are...er...not forthright with their answers.

"Have you been social distancing?"  "Oh, yes."
"How did you catch this?"                "Oh, I don't know."


So maybe the old expression can be modified to; a watched curve never flattens.  Let's find out.

A Bunch Of Yahoos...

...obviously live in my neighbourhood.  [Click on graph to zoom in.]

This is a chart of Ontario COVID cases per capita.  A few weeks ago, we looked to be "flattening the curve". so the province relaxed some of the stay at home guidelines, just in time for the long weekend. 

Then, depending upon your incubation period, the trend is now up, up and away.

Yesterday Ontario had 390 new cases.  And I know who they are -  I just have to look out the window.  Of the 390 - 307 were in the Toronto area!

In fact yesterday, in all of Canada west of Ontario, there was a total of.....23 new cases.

Let's look at some of those other areas.

One Of These Things Is Not Like The Others

Even Quebec is on the downward trend.

And you can't attribute Ontario's uptick to increased testing either.  Because they hardly did any over the long weekend.  Looks like there are lots of Yahoo hats to go around.

Fortunately - or unfortunately - we are not alone.

When we last looked, Italy and Spain were in the #2 and #3 spots.  Now, Russia and Brazil occupy those positions.

And yesterday, he World Health Organization reported the most cases in a single day - 106,000! 

Brazil had nearly 20,000 of them!  [Canada, from the start, has had 80,000.]  They will quickly overtake Russia.  And from all accounts, Mexico will quickly overtake Canada.

Although if those frickin' yahoos in my neighbourhood have anything to say about it.....


At times like this, you might need to look to a higher power.....

[From the excellent comic strip Pearls Before Swine, by Stephan Pastis.]


That's probably not the uplifting message you needed.  Although looking to an even higher power may not help either.

You Have Got To Be Kidding Me

I have absolutely no idea what day it is.

And honestly, do you?

Come on now.

Okay, let's just say here are yesterday's COVID stats.  Starting with new cases.

Again, looks like slow and steady.  And Ontario.....

Oh come on.  Of Ontario's 427 new cases yesterday, 210 were in Toronto!  Could that be a result of hoards of "yahoos" out on the long weekend?  325 of the cases in the GTA (75% of the province's total).

Deaths yesterday.....

Well, maybe we've reached a new normal here.  If you can call 70 deaths normal.  But the curve certainly looks flattened here. For now, anyway.

Regardless, it almost makes you want to not know what day it is.

But it's one thing not to know what day it is, and another when you miss something completely.....

Was That Today...?