Local COVID-19 updates

( Wall-o-text with plenty of bad news )

Day-to-day cases and deaths were both up by more than fifty percent; the 6,419 newly reported confirmed cases are the third highest single-day amount ever reported by the state. The number of COVID-19 ICU and ventilator patients both went up, while the number of available hospital beds (both medical/surgical and ICU) dropped by several percentage points in a single day. Scary. (And that's not counting the insanity happening in Washington DC.)

The town of Acton's current Google Data Studio dashboard is showing 41 active and 557 cumulative cases as of January 5; it does not appear to have been updated since. The most recent "newsflash style update" at 9PM on December 15 reported 433 cumulative cases with 63 individuals in isolation, 345 persons recovered and 25 fatalities.

Insurrection

Because a deadly pandemic isn't enough of a set of problems to go around, we got this shit earlier today: A pro-Trump mob stormed the US Capitol building today while the Congress was conducting the formal counting of the electoral votes (as required by 3 U.S.C. 15):

WASHINGTON (AP) — A violent mob loyal to President Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol on Wednesday and forced lawmakers into hiding, in a stunning attempt to overturn America's presidential election, undercut the nation's democracy and keep Democrat Joe Biden from replacing Trump in the White House.

The nation's elected representatives scrambled to crouch under desks and don gas marks, while police futilely tried to barricade the building, one of the most jarring scenes ever to unfold in a seat of American political power. A woman was shot and killed inside the Capitol, and Washington's mayor instituted an evening curfew in an attempt to contain the violence.

The rioters were egged on by Trump, who has spent weeks falsely attacking the integrity of the election and had urged his supporters to descend on Washington to protest Congress' formal approval of Biden's victory. Some Republican lawmakers were in the midst of raising objections to the results on his behalf when the proceedings were abruptly halted by the mob.

[ ... ]

The president gave his supporters a boost into action Wednesday morning at a rally outside the White House, where he urged them to march to the Capitol. He spent much of the afternoon in his private dining room off the Oval Office watching scenes of the violence on television. At the urging of his staff, he reluctantly issued a pair of tweets and a taped video telling his supporters it was time to "go home in peace" — yet he still said he backed their cause.

[ ... ]

Hours later, Twitter for the first time time locked Trump's account, demanded that he remove tweets excusing violence and threatened "permanent suspension."

Jesus H Fucking Christ.

Now the Joint Session of Congress is back underway (after the House and Senate finished rejecting the objections to Arizona's votes). A Georgia representative tried to object to his state's votes, but didn't get anyone from the Senate to play along.