A Snapshot in Time: The Reality of COVID-19 in Mid-April 2020

This week, the local government here in Austin made the decision to extend our stay-at-home orders until May 8th at the earliest. The original order was issued on March 24th, though bars and restaurants had closed several days before that.

Our local county has also required the use of fabric face masks or coverings when in public spaces, such as the grocery store, gas station, or bank. No mask, and you’re not allowed in. Not only that, you could be fined for not covering your face in public.

We’re certainly in good company here in Austin—a whopping 95% of the American population has been ordered to stay home.

And that’s just here in the United States; globally, nearly every country on the planet has been affected.

At this moment in time, there have been more than 19k deaths in Spain, 21k deaths in Italy, 17k deaths in France, 12k deaths in the United Kingdom, 3k deaths in Germany…

---

Why am I writing this blog post?

Quite simply, to capture this moment in time.

I want to document what it’s like to be alive today, April 16, 2020, in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Inevitably, people are going to look back and ask the question, “Was it really that bad, or did we overreact?” In fact, people already are: yesterday in Michigan, a group of protestors in cars gathered to gridlock the streets of downtown Lansing in response to the state’s stay-at-home orders.

I imagine that 6 months, 1 year, 3 years, 5 years, 10 years and beyond from today, this skepticism and doubt will have grown. People will forget the statistics they read, along with the images of makeshift morgues and horror stories from exhausted doctors and nurses.

This blog post is not an opinion piece; I’m not going to offer any poignant insights or advice. This is a summary of the situation and important data that humanity needs to remember when all this is over.

This post is for me, and anyone in the future who wants to know what the COVID-19 pandemic was really like. This is the current reality.

---

COVID-19 Statistics as of April 16, 2020

By March 31st, the total death toll of the COVID-19 pandemic here in the U.S. had surged past 3,000—meaning the virus had now killed more American than the 9/11 terrorism attacks.

During the second week of April, more than 12,000 Americans lost their lives to COVID-19—the equivalent of three 9/11 attacks in a single week.

Or perhaps a better way to explain the magnitude of this tragedy would be to say that the coronavirus has now killed more Americans than 9/11, Pearl Harbor, the Iraq war, and the Afghanistan war combined.

New York state has been hit especially hard; as of April 15, more people have died in New York than in any country except three: France, Spain and Italy.

The other states that have been hit especially hard by COVID-19  include New Jersey (3,156 deaths as of April 15), Michigan (1,921), and Louisiana (1,013).

Of course, this is just a jumble of numbers, and it’s hard to grasp their true meaning. So let’s look closer at what this really means for living, breathing, thinking, feeling people like you and me.

---

The Stories Beyond the Numbers

New York City has constructed temporary morgues (called Body Collection Points) and refrigerated trucks across the city to accommodate the hundreds of dead bodies that are piling up in hospitals day after day. And it’s not just NYC; consider this news excerpt from April 4th:

In Spain, where the death toll has climbed to nearly 12,000, an ice rink in Madrid was turned into a makeshift morgue after the city’s municipal funeral service said it could no longer take coronavirus bodies until it was restocked with protective equipment. In Italy, embalmed bodies in caskets are being sent to church halls and warehouses while they await cremation or burial.

And this week in New Jersey, police discovered 17 bodies crammed into the morgue of a nursing home, where a total of 68 patients have died. In a single nursing home.

But hey, don’t take my word for it. Let’s see what the most informed people in the nation—the healthcare professionals working on the front lines—have to say about it:

My babies are too young to read this now. And they’d barely recognize me in my gear. But if they lose me to COVID I want them to know Mommy tried really hard to do her job. #GetMePPE #NYC pic.twitter.com/OMew5G7mjK

— Cornelia Griggs (@CorneliaLG) March 29, 2020

You reflect on the fact that it’s really hard to understand how bad this is – and how bad its going to be – if all you see are empty streets.

Hospitals are nearing capacity. We are running out of ventilators. Ambulance sirens don’t stop.

— Craig Spencer MD MPH (@Craig_A_Spencer) March 24, 2020

Forbes did a nice job compiling a collection of stories from doctors across the U.S. in honor of National Doctor’s Day on March 30th:

The stories we’ve all heard from doctors and nurses in the United States are chilling. Patients are saying their potential final goodbyes to family members via Skype and FaceTime before being intubated—if they have the chance to say goodbye at all.

Hospitals, morgues, and funeral homes are running out of room for the dead. Nurses and doctors are reusing their disposable personal protective gear, literally risking their own lives by showing up each day.

Sick patients and their families are praying for available hospital beds and ventilators; but in many cases, that means another patient needs to die first to make space.

---

Day-to-day life has been absolutely disrupted.

I can’t speak for everywhere in the United States, but I can speak for our little bubble here in Austin.

Grocery stores have implemented limited hours, and are limiting the number of people inside at a time. Masks are required to enter. Hand sanitizer and cart wipes are passed out to every customer.

Many stores are facing shortages due to a combination of 1) panic buying / hoarding, and 2) families spending more time at home, meaning increased demand for groceries and paper products in their homes. Many stores have implemented buying limits in response to these shortages.

The above photos were all taken in Orlando, Florida.

Restaurants, bars, and coffee shops have been forced to close their dining areas. Most are offering delivery and curbside pickup, but some have been forced to close completely.

Some local restaurants are now selling basic grocery items like milk, flour, bread, meat, and even toilet paper to help consumers get their hands on the goods they need.

Our city’s subreddit has started a daily grocery store thread, where users can report on how crowded the store was, which safety measures are being enforced, and which items they were able or unable to find.

This thread is filled with responses each and every day.

Grocery delivery services through HEB, Amazon PrimeNow, and Instacart have become almost impossible to secure. When I’m lucky enough to snag a spot, I personally have been placing my grocery deliveries 7-10 days in advance, in order to avoid going to the store.

Movie theaters are closed. Offices are closed. Hair salons and nail salons are closed. Hotels are closed.

Concerts are cancelled. Weddings are cancelled. Flights are cancelled, and airports are empty.

My mail carrier wears a mask and gloves as she walks around the neighborhood delivering mail. My neighbors wear masks as they walk their dogs and push their children in strollers.

People have lost their jobs and their income. People are struggling to pay their rent and their mortgages. People are terrified about the future of the economy. People are terrified, period.

The craziest thing? How quickly this whole situation exploded into being. What started as an outbreak in a single city in China, ended up turning the entire world on its head in a matter of weeks.

---

Global COVID-19 Timeline

• January 11th – China reported its first known death from an illness caused by the coronavirus.
• January 20th – WHO reported the first confirmed cases outside China in Thailand, Japan, and South Korea.
• January 21st – The United States announced its first confirmed coronavirus case, in Seattle.
• January 30th – Global confirmed cases reached 9,000 across 18 countries, plus China. WHO declared the outbreak a global public health emergency.
• February 11th – WHO announced that the name of this novel coronavirus would now be COVID-19.
• February 14th – The first COVID-19 death was reported outside Asia, in France.
• February 24th – Italy experienced a rapid spike in cases, becoming the worst-affected country in the world.
• February 26th – California announced its first presumed case of community spread (patient with no travel history or contact with known patients).
• February 29th – The first U.S. death occurred, in Washington state.
• March 6th – Austin, TX cancelled SXSW due to COVID-19 fears. Off the coast of California, 21 people aboard the Grand Princess cruise ship tested positive for COVID-19.
• March 8th – Confirmed cases in the U.S. reached 500.
• March 10th – Italy expanded its lockdown orders to the entire nation; just two days before, the order has been issued to the Lombardy region only.
• March 11th – WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic. The NBA suspended all basketball games. Tom Hanks announced that he had tested positive for COVID-19.
• March 14th – Cases in Spain soared to more than 3,800. The country ordered a partial lockdown on citizens, requiring them to stay home except for essential activities.
• March 15th – The number of confirmed cases in the U.S. surpassed 3,000. More than 30 states had announced school closures by this point.
• March 16th – Germany closed its borders with France, Austria, Denmark, Switzerland, and Luxembourg. The confirmed cases in Italy rose to 28,000. San Francisco became the first city to restrict residents from leaving their homes except for essential needs. Trump advised all Americans to avoid gatherings of 10 or more people.
• March 17th – West Virginia became the 50th and final state to announce positive COVID-19 cases.
• March 18th – Belgium became the fourth European nation to enact a country-wide quarantine, along with Italy, Spain, and France.
• March 19th – Australia and New Zealand closed their borders to all foreigners. The U.S. State Department raised the global travel advisory to Level 4: Do Not Travel for all Americans. California issued a statewide stay-at-home order.
• March 20th – The death toll in Italy increased by 627 in a single day. The mayor of New York City declared the city to be the new epicenter of COVID-19 in the U.S.
• March 23rd – WHO reported that more than 300,000 cases were reported globally, from almost every country in the world.
• March 24th – COVID-19 cases in the U.S. topped 50,000. The U.K.’s death toll jumped by 25 percent in one day. France entered a two-month state of emergency.
• March 25th – The U.S. Senate passed a $2 trillion stimulus package to help ease the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.
• March 26th – The number of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. cases surpassed those in China.
• March 27th – The number of Global coronavirus cases surpassed 500,000, with 100,000 of those in the U.S.
• March 28th – The CDC issued travel advisories for New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. The death toll in Italy reached 10,000.
• March 29th – The Tokyo Summer Olympics were pushed out one year, to July 2021.
• April 1st – Spain recorded its deadliest day of the outbreak, with 864 new deaths in 24 hours.
• April 2nd – The U.S. Department of Labor announced that a record 6.6 million Americans had filed for unemployment benefits the previous week. Deaths in New York surpassed 2,000, and deaths nationwide topped 5,000. The number of COVID-19 cases worldwide surpassed 1 million.
• April 3rd – The CDC officially recommended Americans wear cloth face coverings in public to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The U.S. death toll reached 7,000.
• April 5th – The death tolls in Italy and Spain began declining. The countries had thus far reported 15,887 and 12,400 deaths, respectively.
• April 6th – The U.S. death toll reached 10,000. France reported its highest 24-hour death toll since the start of the pandemic.
• April 9th – An additional 6.6 million Americas filed first-time unemployment claims by the end of the week, bringing the total to 16 million over the past three weeks. The CDC extended its no-sail order for cruise ships indefinitely.
• April 10th – WHO warned against a premature lifting of lockdown measures.
• April 11th – The United States surpassed Italy in the number of coronavirus deaths, becoming the worst-hit country in the world. The death toll in the U.S. surpassed 20,000.
• April 13th – New York state’s coronavirus death toll surpassed 10,000. Italy’s death toll surpassed 20,000. Wyoming became the 50th and final state to report a COVID-19 death. France extended lockdown measures until May 11th.
• April 16th – The global number of COVID-19 cases reached 2 million.

---

Truly, this summary only scratches the surface.

There is so much more that could be said about the 20,000 Americans that have been killed, the 650,000 that have become infected, the 16 million that have filed for unemployment, or the millions of healthcare workers that have had their worlds turned upside down by COVID-19. I hope we continue hearing their stories.

There is also much that could be said about the silver linings of this pandemic; the way that communities have banded together, neighbors have helped one another, citizens have begun sewing masks for healthcare workers, consumers have become more conscious of their shopping and waste habits, and the natural world has flourished in the absence of human interference.

But for now, I am simply looking at the current state of the world today, in mid-April, during what is hopefully the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

And I’m praying that humanity is collectively intelligent enough to recognize how serious and monumental this event truly is; empathetic enough to rally behind those who are suffering the most; and self-aware enough to resist downplaying these events as we move forward.

---

No matter how trivial or monotonous your own stories may seem (believe me, I’ve had that thought as well), I encourage everyone to document or share their COVID-19 experiences in some way. How has your job been affected? Your daily routines? Your local community? Your relationships?

Even if you choose not to share your stories publicly, at least keep them for yourself, to reread in the future or share with younger generations. It’s amazing how memories can lose their color and depth over time…and this pandemic is an event that deserves to be remembered.