Update as of 8:20 am ET:

There are 19775 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 276 deaths due to coronavirus in the U.S. I plan to stop reporting on these numbers, as there may be just as many unconfirmed cases as confirmed cases due to unavailability of tests.

If you are feeling symptoms of COVID-19, please stay home. Along with this, many people do not know they are sick and can spread this virus to others without knowing.

The reason to stay home and get better is to eliminate the spread of disease. Most people are able to get over the virus, but there will be many who will fight for their lives. The problem we will face is the lack of hospital resources and staff.

When people flood the hospital, doctors may have to make painful choices, such as who needs care the most. Healthcare staff are vulnerable to disease and therefore there will be more health professionals unable to care for patients

We can keep from flooding hospitals by limiting the spread of disease. THAT is why you need to stay home.

Just like vaccinating your children and yourself, you are not only keeping those you love healthy, but you protect your community. Please stay home. I know it’s not an easy thing to do, but it’s what’s right.

Understand that’s why events, stores, and restaurants are closed. That’s why you need to have a discussion with your children about not getting to go to the playground and canceling playdates and postponing large birthday parties. They will understand.

As the disease spreads across America, we need to be positive and do our human duty to protect others.

Resources:

• QUICK FACTS AND INTERESTING TIDBITS ABOUT CORONAVIRUS 2019 AND COVID-19
• CHILDREN AND CORONAVIRUS: STATS AND FACTS AS OF 3/12/20
• Johns Hopkins’ Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Cases Tracker 
• Bloomberg’s Mapping the Coronavirus Outbreak Across the World
• Worldometer for current U.S. case and death count
• CDC’s Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)
• WHO’s Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Outbreak page
• NBC’s Coronavirus in the U.S.: Map of where cases have been confirmed across the country
• CDC’s What to do if You are Sick
• CDC’s Symptoms and Testing
• What Is Coronavirus: The Absolute Facts Behind the Outbreak
• WHO’s Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Advice for the Public

Update as of 7:30 pm ET:

There are currently 9236 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and have been 150 deaths in the U.S.

There have been over 8,000 deaths worldwide.

U.S. national parks are staying open and are waiving entrance fees.

A reprint from CNN: Undetected infections may have driven “rapid dissemination” of coronavirus, modeling shows, by Arman Azad:

Mild, asymptomatic or otherwise unrecognized infections may have driven the rapid spread of the novel coronavirus in the outbreak’s earliest days, according to modeling published Monday in the journal Science.

The research, based on reported cases in China and travel data, estimated that 86% of coronavirus infections in the country were “undocumented” in the weeks before officials instituted stringent quarantines. 

Undocumented infections, according to the researchers, can go unrecognized because they come with mild or no symptoms, and that “can expose a far greater portion of the population to virus than would otherwise occur.”

These undetected cases, which are often less severe, were estimated to be about half as contagious as confirmed cases. But because undetected cases were more common, they could have played an outsize role in spreading the virus, the study said.

About 4 in 5 people confirmed to have coronavirus, for example, were likely infected by people who didn’t know they had it, according to the modeling.

“These findings explain the rapid geographic spread of [coronavirus] and indicate containment of this virus will be particularly challenging,” the researchers wrote.

The study, they later added, suggests that “a radical increase in the identification and isolation of currently undocumented infections would be needed to fully control [the virus].”

The takeaway? People who don’t know they have the virus are spreading it to others. You may be infected and not know it, so practice good hygiene and limit exposure to large groups of people.

Resources:

• QUICK FACTS AND INTERESTING TIDBITS ABOUT CORONAVIRUS 2019 AND COVID-19
• CHILDREN AND CORONAVIRUS: STATS AND FACTS AS OF 3/12/20
• Johns Hopkins Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Cases Tracker 
• Bloomberg’s Mapping the Coronavirus Outbreak Across the World
• Worldometer for current U.S. case and death count
• CDC Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) page 
• WHO Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Outbreak page
• NBC News live updates
• NBC News : Coronavirus in the U.S.: Map of where cases have been confirmed across the country
• TVM U.S. Coronavirus Updates