The Monday morning, April 20 Johns Hopkins COVID-19 Dashboard, updated at 5:38 a.m. says the confirmed COVID-19 cases globally stand at 2,432,092. The United States now reports 761,991 cases.
Globally, reported deaths are at 166,794, with the United States attributing 40,724 deaths to COVID-19.
As COVID-19 began, there were comparisons of the number of cases and the number of deaths from influenza, although COVID-19 is more contagious than influenza and there is no vaccine, as there is for influenza–and the amount of immunity once one has contracted COVID-19 is unknown. The CDC estimates that influenza has resulted in between 9 million – 45 million illnesses and between 12,000 – 61,000 deaths annually since 2010. The top numbers are based on estimates of the 2017-2018 flu season. So the number of U.S. deaths from COVID-19 since this outbreak began, around January 2020, is a higher percentage of known cases than influenza, and in raw numbers, the number of deaths is now on the higher end of influenza deaths in an entire flu season.
New York State has the most cases (242,786) and the most reported deaths (13,869) in the country, according to the New York State Department of Public Health. But Governor Andrew Cuomo in a Monday morning press conference said the trend for hospitalizations, intubations, and deaths is down. In the last 24 hours, New York State had 478 deaths, a downward trend from more than 700 on many recent days. Governor Cuomo also announced the State Department of Health will conduct antibody tests on 3,000 people to try to assess how widespread COVID-19 really is.
Hawaii now has 580 known cases and 10 deaths. Hawaii Island has had 62 known cases. The largest cluster of 30 is associated with the 3 McDonald’s restaurants in Kailua-Kona, with State DOH saying all the cases are employees or family members. But State Department of Health says they are continuing contact tracing to find others who may have been exposed so they can be tested. In a media briefing, State Health Director Bruce Anderson said one person typically is in contact with 30 to 36 people. DOH says they have released 35 people from isolation, so there are 27 active cases on the island.