The Wednesday morning, May 13, 2020 Johns Hopkins COVID-19 Dashboard report as of 6:32 a.m.:

Worldwide cases: 4,308,055      Worldwide deaths: 294,155

U.S. cases:   1,375,949   U. S. deaths:  82,806

The United States case count has decreased slightly in previous days, but is still averaging around 20,000 new cases each day.  Health experts testifying before the U.S. Senate on Tuesday –Dr. Anthony Fauci, Dr. Robert Redfield of the CDC and Dr. Stephen Hahn of the FDA–warned that as the country reopens, precautions must be taken to avoid seeing a resurgence of cases that could overwhelm the healthcare systems throughout the states.

The U.S. now has close to 83,000 deaths,     The CDC is using models from 13  different institutions around the world to forecast upcoming deaths, which most models say will reach at least 130,000.  The University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation is predicting 147,000 deaths by early August.  But the IHME model does show the daily death count –between yesterday and this morning at 1,235–gradually decreasing over the next few months.  The CDC says forecasting, even though an imperfect science, is critical to be able to help inform public health decision-making.

In Hawaii, the state has 635 cumulative cases, with 563 no longer being monitored, according to the State Department of Health.  Hawaii Island has had 75 cumulative cases, with none still active.  Experts say testing is one of the key things to being able to reopen, and so far, Hawaii has conducted 37,045 tests for COVID-19.  And now, doctors are beginning to do antibody testing.  On Tuesday, Dr. Scott Miscovich of Premier Medical Group, which is spearheading much of the antibody testing, said antibody testing tells if somebody has already had COVID-19 and will be helpful in beginning to understand immunity levels in the community.