Cartoon

Under Control

Written by SK Ashby

(Cartoonist - Stuart Carlson)

In other news, New York has joined California in issuing a shelter in place order for the entire state. All essential businesses are to be closed.

The good news is liquor stores have been classified as essential.

Meanwhile, the IRS has extended the tax filing deadline from April 15th to July 15th.

Finally, the number of global cases of the coronavirus topped 250,000 today. Italy reported 627 additional deaths in a single day.

ROME (Reuters) - The death toll from an outbreak of coronavirus in Italy has leapt by 627 to 4,032, officials said on Friday, an increase of 18.4% — by far the largest daily rise in absolute terms since the contagion emerged a month ago.

Until Friday, Italy had never recorded more than 475 deaths in a single day, while China, where the contagion has slowed sharply, has never reported more than 150.

The total number of cases in Italy rose to 47,021 from a previous 41,035, an increase of 14.6%, the Civil Protection Agency said.

These numbers -- with 4,000 deaths from 47,000 cases -- suggests an 8.5 percent death rate in Italy. For comparison, the death rate of the flu is about 0.1 percent.

Tell your stubborn family to stay home this weekend. I'm opening a box of cheap wine tonight. I'll try not to drink the whole thing in one sitting.