Thread by @msightly

July was a particularly brutal month for the US - on many fronts.
1. COVID-19 cases and death toll climbed higher across the country except for a few states in the northeast. July recorded more than 10 days with over 1000 daily fatalities.

msightly.com/covid-19/detai…

2. Since July 1st, the average daily cases have increased by 44% and average daily fatalities have gone up 40%. The month started with total cases at 2.67 M cases - 1.89 M new cases were recorded. Also, there were total 33,000 fatalities in the month.

3. Hospitalizations increased from 36,000 to 60,000 at one point before Trump admin decided to hand over that data to HHS instead of quasi independent CDC.

4. In the meanwhile, positivity rate increased by a full percent to reach 8%.

5. Testing improved in terms of sample collection. However, the processing is severely lagging with delays ranging from 4 - 14 days in various states. This means most of the tests would be useless - other than bragging rights - in containing the outbreak.

msightly.com/covid-19/detai…

6. Economic anxiety exacerbated as emergency unemployment insurance expired this week for over 20 million people who are currently unemployed. The official unemployment rate is now 11.6% for July.
msightly.com/covid-19/detai…

7. The Bureau of Economic Analysis reported real gross domestic product (GDP) decreased at an annual rate of 32.9 percent in the second quarter of 2020.

msightly.com/covid-19/detai…

8. DOL released weekly unemployment claims. In July alone, 5.3 M filed for unemployment benefits. For 19 weeks in a row, over 1 million people have filed for unemployment benefits since March.

msightly.com/covid-19/detai…