SENSITIVE CONTENT The Official Coronavirus Thread

[Bom]

UK SCHOOLS TO CLOSE FROM FRIDAY

• All UK schools will close immediately to staff and most pupils from Friday afternoon until further notice. Wales was first to announce the measure, followed closely by Scotland and Northern Ireland, before the Prime Minister confirmed the move would be nationwide. Johnson said nurseries and private schools would also be asked to close, and exams would not take place in May and June.
• The death roll in the UK rose to 104, after NHS England confirmed a further 32 people had lost their lives after testing positive for Covid-19. The patients were aged between 59 and 94 years old and had underlying health conditions. Their deaths raised the total number in England to 99.
• The number of people to test positive for coronavirus in the UK as of 9am on Wednesday was 2,626, up from 1,950 - a rise of 676.
• The government announced it would introduce emergency legislation to bring in a complete ban on new evictions for three months as part of measures to help protect renters in social and private rented accomodation.
• Major annual events including Glastonbury Festival and the Eurovision Song Contest were cancelled in line with government guidance on social distancing. Cultural spaces across the country, from Shakespeare’s Globe to National Trust buildings, also closed their doors.
• Supermarket chains Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Aldi and Morrison’s introduced measures to limit customer purchasing. As they struggle to cope with high demand arising from “panic buying” and stockpiling, moves included restricted customers to buying a maximum of three products per line.
• The BBC and ITV have also altered their scheduling as filming of BBC dramas like EastEnders and Casualty were suspended and transmission of soaps including Coronation Street and Emmerdale have been altered to keep programmes on air as long as possible.
• A prisoner in HMP Manchester became the first in the UK to test positive for the coronavirus. The inmate is currently being treated in hospital.

UK coronavirus live: all schools to close from Friday; GCSE and A-level exams cancelled

Prime Minister says: ‘exams will not take place as planned in May and June’; 32 more people die in England taking UK death toll to 104. Rolling UK coverage

www.theguardian.com

 

[Pyron]

Well with the huge jump in Italy, I see fear seeping in people. There are still many people who still sleeping to this crisis and will join the rankings of panic buyers. Hopefully retailers are prepared this time around. I see fellow Californians going to Mexico for supplies (Mexico should close the border.)

Sadly people just look at the numbers and have no fucking idea how to process it. I remember people freaking out for SK numbers. SK numbers will be at the bottom of the list. Italy could surpass China if they tested everyone. At minimum I think there is 20K asymptomatic cases in the wild if using the proportion from a town that tested everyone there (3% symptomatic and 1.5% asymptomatic). At worse, some people say as high as 80% aren't detected yet worldwide (probably not close to this high in Italy). Hopefully their response will pay off as scary as this moment is. They will also be closer to a finishing line to this nightmare.

Now the other Western countries are one week behind Italy. Some of them may not have the higher elder population and density like USA, so they should use this to their advantage. There is still time to act. People are being pessimist with the response of their countries (and with reason), but in the end, they have the means to properly fight it. They just need to muster their resources (as painful it is to their economy) and stop being wishy washy.

However, my worse fears is it is spreading in poor countries. They may not have a big elder percentage, but they don't have strong institutions and infrastructure. The ones who realize it closed down early and hopefully will be fine. Brazil, Indonesia, and Pakistan are at the top of the list. It would be a disaster if countries like Bangladesh aren't in control of their situation.

As much I've been praising Singapore, it seems they may have loose their control a bit. Hopefully it won't bite them later. China also not reporting many new cases, but it's still too early to call victory for them. Hope they don't get to eager to turn their economic engine on too early. Also, they may have exported it first, but they may get cases from outside if proper control is lax (it seems fine with 14 days quarantine for asymptomatic travelers coming in).

 

[Pyron]

California is finally in lockdown. Non essential stuff will be closed. It's not too severe. Of course, mixed reception because Americans can't live without their "freedom" and civil duty seems like a weird concept to some. It's just a matter of time the rest of major areas in the USA to follow suit.

It's a hard pill to swallow, but this isn't a situation to fuck around and USA fucked around for way too long.

 

[Kami]

 

[Bom]

Sigh, officially out of work until this is over.

 

[Kami]

It's crazy that this was what the hospitals in Wuhan looked like just a month ago but it's now happening in Spain and across Europe.

 

[Kami]

 

[Pyron]

It seems Italy's hard pill measures are starting to pay off. It sad that they were the first ones experimenting these consequences for not acting fast enough, but they will be the fortunate ones in coming months.

USA is the new epicenter now and still not working hard as a whole to fight this crisis.

 

[GuardianofTheCosmicRealm]

I'm going crazy and sad over the outbreak situation. It's like a neverending nightmare. Please for heaven sake, let the warm weather theory be true....

 

[Pyron]

Italy's lockdown seems to be working. It's the forth day of slowdown. The numbers are bleak, but their efforts is paying off.

Oh the bad news, new cases in SK are from EU and USA. They are starting to have stricter measures for travelers.

 

[Pyron]

 

[Pyron]

Predictably, American media is so horrible and concerned with their profits and petty special interests instead of spreading information. Americans have to check for information from other media outlet. I was following translated HK, SK, and Taiwanese sources instead. Although I'd not say their media is impartial, but during this crisis this is the best I could get. I was following reddit as well, but the exponential growth of this /r just lowered the quality of the information a lot.

USA has been such a fail in all fronts.

 

[Pyron]

Now a lot of places are in lockdown or close to some form of lockdown, I don't see much planning what to do after these lockdown. Lot of specialists say after this period, it's possible the virus will return with vengeance and we will have to go back to quarantine again and again.

Even places that prepared well like Taiwan and Singapore can't really go back to normal because the other countries are fucked and they have to wait them get their shit together. Also, I see countries start to stockpile resources as well. Sorta like the TP fiasco but with countries.

I feared the worse case would be the total fuck up of economy, but I'm now I may be just too optimistic. The economy is the least of our concern now. The "normal" way of life may be in threat. We can't go back to normal if the leaders still keeping just reacting to this problem.

Now I may be exaggerating and I sure hope so, but I was like this in January and worse case scenarios are just unfolding uncontrollably. I'm not an expert. Just a normal Joe, but like a lot of normal people following this crisis closely, we just saw this trainwreck unfold in a very slow motion while leaders were doing absolute nothing or worse than nothing.

WHO, EU, and USA have to step up more. They are just bandaging this crisis and hoping for the best like vaccine or treatment. I dunno if we can wait a year+ for that if they can't have real plans to clean the crap they made.

At very least they should ramp up testing capability more.

 

[Bom]

WHO, EU, and USA have to step up more. They are just bandaging this crisis and hoping for the best like vaccine or treatment. I dunno if we can wait a year+ for that if they can't have real plans to clean the crap they made.

At very least they should ramp up testing capability more.

100%, we need real figures at the very least. I'm in UK we are not getting tested here unless you get admitted to hospital, despite there being asymptomatic carriers spreading it more. Yes, we're on lock down but people are still going out for non-essential things.

I can't fathom why the leaders just stood back while this was unfolding, and I know full well I, and so many others, can't have our lives on hold indefinitely. It really does seem they are waiting for a vaccine but we need to do something before then, a vaccine could take ages.

This whole situation is so stressful.

 

[peach]

100%, we need real figures at the very least. I'm in UK we are not getting tested here unless you get admitted to hospital, despite there being asymptomatic carriers spreading it more. Yes, we're on lock down but people are still going out for non-essential things.

I can't fathom why the leaders just stood back while this was unfolding, and I know full well I, and so many others, can't have our lives on hold indefinitely. It really does seem they are waiting for a vaccine but we need to do something before then, a vaccine could take ages.

This whole situation is so stressful.

That's true.
And the situation is not better in Germany. When the virus broke out in China, the government was pitying China and said it wouldn't break out like that in Germany.
When the virus broke out in Italy and the situation got worse, no one did anything to prevent the virus from spreading in Germany.
The opposite, the government didn't think about to cancel Karneval (thousands of people celebrate together for several days) and allowed football games and other big festivities, even when the virus was already spreading fast.
And now? Around 65,000 infected. We can be grateful that we don't have many deaths. Yet. But this can always change.
So many things went wrong and could have been prevented.

 

[Bom]

That's true.
And the situation is not better in Germany. When the virus broke out in China, the government was pitying China and said it wouldn't break out like that in Germany.
When the virus broke out in Italy and the situation got worse, no one did anything to prevent the virus from spreading in Germany.
The opposite, the government didn't think about to cancel Karneval (thousands of people celebrate together for several days) and allowed football games and other big festivities, even when the virus was already spreading fast.
And now? Around 65,000 infected. We can be grateful that we don't have many deaths. Yet. But this can always change.
So many things went wrong and could have been prevented.

Same here, nothing got cancelled until it was too late since our PM initially decided letting everyone catch it and many just die was a good idea.
We were exactly the same, watching things get worse in Italy and doing nothing about it.

Death rate seems to have gone up in UK today, but they're not saying they died exclusively of the virus, or if they had any underlying health conditions. I don't really believe the figures entirely, but we seem to be at the point where in the next 2 weeks the rate of infection and deaths will peak. In the UK at least, Germany maybe a little ahead considering the figures, but Germany is larger I think. We have 25,150 confirmed cases, death toll of 1,789.. but only 135 recoveries on record.

It really annoys me that had it been taken seriously weeks ago we could be in a much better position against this virus.

 

[Pyron]

It was just some weeks ago that South Korea was one of the epicenters of this crisis. Pretty soon it won't be even at top 25 as long they stay on course.

Spain just passed Italy, but because of USA, attention is less given to this fact. This is quite a problem because other places like Brazil, Turkey, and India deserve some attention. They are key areas. Also, nations plagued by lack of health care infrastructure in Africa that just were dealing with other maladies may not get the help they need.

 

[peach]

yikes



Well, get well soon

 

[Pyron]

The news in California and Los Angeles has been a bit hopeful. I guess we may have dodged the bullet enough that the curve is flat enough to weather this storm. Even thou both governor and mayor started this crisis pretty badly (like not cancelling the marathon), they have been working hard.

Los Angeles is starting to test more, so maybe we can get at the stage we can have a better picture of our situation. If California can manage this crisis well, the state could start helping the less fortunate states faster. Maybe it's too early to count any victory, but at least I'm seeing action. That's what we need. That way we can see some possible direction after this crisis instead being in the dark and be just reactionary.

The situation in the USA as a whole is still bleak with this disjointed response and very dubious elements inside the taskforce team. Sadly I don't see many signs of a better coordinated effort between states and federal government.

 

[Bom]

Japan to offer anti-flu Avigan drug to 20 virus-hit nations for free

Japan plans to provide the anti-flu drug Avigan for free to 20 countries hoping to use it to treat coronavirus patients, Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said Tuesday.

The 20 countries receiving the drug, which is currently undergoing clinical tests, include Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Indonesia, Iran, Myanmar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, with an additional 30 countries showing interest, according to Motegi.

Japan will provide the United Nations Office for Project Services with a $1 million grant to buy and distribute the drug, also known as Favipiravir, which is developed by a subsidiary of Fujifilm Holdings Corp.

“We will work with interested countries to expand clinical research on Avigan internationally,” the foreign minister told a news conference.

Researchers at Wuhan University and other institutions in China have said the drug was effective on coronavirus patients, especially for those with mild symptoms of COVID-19.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government plans to boost the stockpile of Avigan to three times the current amount for use in treating 2 million people infected with the new coronavirus.

Source: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/04/07/national/science-health/coronavirus-japan-avigan-20-nations-free/#.XpGxeFVKgdU



And some news from UK.

Coronavirus: Morning update as UK daily death toll surpasses Italy and Spain's worst days


1. UK daily death toll among highest in Europe
It was announced on Friday that another 980 people had died in UK hospitals - bringing the total number of UK deaths to 8,958. It is a record daily number that has exceeded Italy and Spain's worst daily figures during the pandemic. More than 100,000 people have died from the virus around the world, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University in the US.

Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52251836



Sad that so many people have died here now, had lockdown been in place earlier I do think this could've been drastically lower.
We saw the high numbers in Italy and I'm beyond pissed that nothing was done sooner.

Also Boris is now out of ICU and recovering.