France

As it turns out, France is having a very bad day today. Their figure for COVID-19 deaths is 1,341. That's the equivalent of the U.S. losing 6,604 people in the same day.

Now we are learning the full scale of what China did: the virus was ravaging through Europe in February. China kept the world in the dark in January, and now we're all paying for it.

For the U.S., we're in the midst of one of our worst days in this. Our reported figure as of mid-afternoon is 1,443 deaths (799 in New York state).

In Minnesota, the projections show 456 COVID-19 deaths between the start of this and August 4, 2020. Two weeks ago, that estimate was over 2,000. It was cut in half on April 5...and then on April 8, the estimate was again cut in half.

If all activity returned to what you'd say was "normal" for mid-April, the estimated deaths from COVID-19 would jump back over 2,000 and very likely higher. So for now, Minnesotans will hunker down and continue being very deliberate about every public interaction we have.