Cpt. Tom Moore - a British WW2 veteran who initially planned to raise £1000 for the NHS by walking 100 lengths of his garden - turns 100 years old today. Meanwhile, his fund has now reached a staggering
£30 million.
His birthday would normally have been marked by a letter from HM The Queen (as is customary for all people who reach 100 y.o.) but today his birthday has been additionally marked with a message from the Prime Minister, a flypast of Spitfires by the Royal Air Force, and an honorary promotion to the rank of Colonel.
Numbers went up. Record high 135 new cases yesterday, 112 today.
According to the Wiki timeline, Texas saw a 2.7%, 3.5%, & 3.4% as of today number of cases. What seems troubling imo, is the number of death percentages went up over that time frame: 2.3%, 4.1%, & 6.1% as of today. 6.1% increase in the number of deaths is the highest it's been in nearly 2 weeks.
I would go on the Daily New Cases as a better metric to watch - Deaths lag behind New Cases, and New Cases lag behind actual infections, so it is to be expected that death rates can increase while new cases may be going down. In both cases, the numbers are pretty noisy, and hence it takes at least a week to be able to see any clear trend in the data, hence it may still be a few weeks until most states can safely say that the infection rate is low enough to remove certain restrictions.
It is a very tough judgement call though, because it is not a question of if but when lockdowns are lifted... eventually (and quite soon) they will do more damage than they are intended to prevent. The worst case scenario, however, is that in our rush to restore normality (and to save our economies from greater harm), we run the risk of reopening the doors to unacceptably high transmission rates again.
I hope, however, that general adherence to some far less onerous 'restrictions' (e.g. wear a mask inside a store or public place) will mean that life can return to something like normal
and keep the transmission rate as low as it is today.
From
@Touring Mars's article:This would be huge... huuuuuge... for so many people.
There was already some evidence to suggest that shutting down schools was only very meagerly effective. It is a virtual certainty that some kids can and will spread the virus, but it also looks pretty clear that the risk from re-opening schools is nowhere near as high as it might be otherwise.
On the question of how asymptomatic people can spread a virus, I guess it depends on the virus, but people sneeze, cough, spit, and some generally practice poor personal (and public) hygiene all the time, and thus a virus that can spread through the air via aerosols and can persist on solid surfaces for up to 72 hours is very well suited to spreading even without a person reporting that they are ill.
.
Although, on the plus side, he does know a lot about dangerous bats... 
