COVID-19 Pandemic

[Sky Full]

One last point.  I think it was Dr Hilary this morning who said that at present there is no test to tell whether someone has had the virus once they have fully recovered.  If his is the case, what's the point of testing people who don't have any symptoms?  They might have already been infected, recovered and are now immune.  

[Snipper]

1 hour ago, Sky Full said:

This is why it makes no sense for the world to try and solve this crisis one country at a time - we HAVE to find a way to work together, to align our actions and agree on a universal policy which will prevent the virus running rampant in one place while being tackled in another.  

We are a global society and we cannot pretend that each country can work alone.  Some real good can come out of this if the human race at last realises that we are all one and the same when it comes to a threat to humanity as a whole.

The EU, which had great potential, can’t so what chance the world?  As usual everyone looking In different directions with different agendas. 

[snow raven]

1 hour ago, Man With Beard said:

OK going to try to be more positive now. 

On the way to work on the train a moment ago, a man dressed in NHS uniform got off, probably to go to the local hospital. A man probably knowing he's walking towards danger as virus victims start to build up in hospitals. 

I just instinctively thought: What a hero. 

I work for the NHS, I'd say he has put patients at risk of infection simply by travelling on the train wearing his uniform.  Hopefully he will change into a clean uniform when he gets to work.

Edited March 13, 2020 by snow raven

[Stabilo19]

So now even Germany are closing schools in badly affected regions.

Is the UK the only affected European country refusing these measures now?

[Snipper]

38 minutes ago, Sky Full said:

Can anyone explain why Russia has so few reported cases?  34 cases out of a population of 144 million seems very low?  Don't they socialise or travel as much as the rest of the world?

Possibly Russia produced it and came up with a vaccine and have vaccinated their population. I am sort of joking. I think.

[Snowy L]

22 minutes ago, summer blizzard said:

Did Italy actually go up 2700?

Good news is that active cases in South Korea appear (margin of a few days when smoothed) to have peaked.

Do you have their numbers for yesterday and today? Cant find them anywhere.

[Stabilo19]

3 minutes ago, Snipper said:

The EU, which had great potential, can’t so what chance the world?  As usual everyone looking In different directions with different agendas. 

The only country not following the rest is the UK!! Everyone else seems to be *roughly* implementing the same measures. We have the different agenda.

[Relativistic]

21 minutes ago, Captain Shortwave said:

I honestly don’t know whether this is going to work, an issue for me is that the incubation time for this virus is quite long so in reality we will always be a week behind the virus. Not to mention during that time you could spread it to others and be completely oblivious to it until you start feeling ill.

Now that testing is only taking place in hospitals we are now blind as to where and how fast this is spreading. Things could go downhill very quickly if many positive cases turn up at once in a single location, you would have to assume a large number of the local population is infected.

@Sky Full I like the outside of the box thinking there. Many professions could be out of work for weeks, which means they could become infected and recover with no real impact.

 

Supposedly it's much less contagious until symptoms begin to show.

[kold weather]

2 minutes ago, Stabilo19 said:

So now even Germany are closing schools in badly affected regions.

Is the UK the only affected European country refusing these measures now?

To be fair to the UK, we are a solid 7 days behind Germany, we probably still aren't at the point where the community spread is so severe we need to shut schools down. It will happen though, once you've got vast chunks of staff off sick and no agency to replace it, the schools will be forced to close. Many kids won't be able to get in either because they will be self-isolating with parents, etc.

Schools will close, its just a matter of can they drag it out to the easter holidays. Looks like they are going to try.

[Stabilo19]

1 minute ago, kold weather said:

To be fair to the UK, we are a solid 7 days behind Germany, we probably still aren't at the point where the community spread is so severe we need to shut schools down. It will happen though, once you've got vast chunks of staff off sick and no agency to replace it, the schools will be forced to close. Many kids won't be able to get in either because they will be self-isolating with parents, etc.

Schools will close, its just a matter of can they drag it out to the easter holidays. Looks like they are going to try.

You're right, but the point is more that every other country - including those more and less affected than the UK - have implemented these measures now.

[kold weather]

The other problem with self isolation is people assuming they have it, self isolate...and then get it again for real down the line...because if some experts are struggling to dignoise it, how are we as lay people going to know? Because flu and bad colds can emulate many of the same symptoms. I know a runny nose rules it out, but my flu from 2 years ago would match spot on with Covid-19, but its clear it was the flu and not that.

My fear is that many are going to assume they've had it, think they are then immune and go out and spread it anyway.

 

 

[Methuselah]

4 minutes ago, Snipper said:

Possibly Russia produced it and came up with a vaccine and have vaccinated their population. I am sort of joking. I think.

Given all the Stolichnaya they consume, I doubt they even realise that anything's wrong?

[kold weather]

Iran now reporting 85 new deaths and 1289 new 'reported' cases.

The deaths though are also likely under-estimated based on the large trenches that have been built for the dead to go into to.

[Snipper]

14 minutes ago, Relativistic said:

Supposedly it's much less contagious until symptoms begin to show.

Thought it was the other way round.  No matter it is contagious when ever someone is infected.

Edited March 13, 2020 by Snipper

[Stabilo19]

Respiratory virus spread will be very limited unless the patient is actively coughing/sneezing. 

So people without symptoms aren't a huge issue I would imagine.

[Summer Sun]

Breaking: Remainder of the Scottish football season postponed indefinitely.

[Wynn D Woo]

31 minutes ago, Snipper said:

Possibly Russia produced it and came up with a vaccine and have vaccinated their population. I am sort of joking. I think.

You say that as a joke but the same thought crossed my mind...

[kold weather]

Just now, Summer Sun said:

Breaking: Remainder of the Scottish football season postponed indefinitely.

Makes sense, I think once the Prem and English league went for it, they had to, regardless of the fact Scotland is about to limit large gatherings anyway.

[kold weather]

Spain up 775

Iran up 1289

Germany up 371

Switzerland up 267

These are just the reported figures and many of those countries will see a larger increase as the day goes on.

 

[snowdog]

I feel we are a little bit in limbo at the moment.With the government not testing the general public now, with only hospitalised patients tested I think we might have a period of time just waiting.

It was only a few weeks ago everyone was worried that China were not doing their part, and not keeping the world informed with regards to how many had the virus there. 

Let's hope we at least have regular updates so we are not left in the dark

[Guest Delete Me]

9 minutes ago, Stabilo19 said:

Respiratory virus spread will be very limited unless the patient is actively coughing/sneezing. 

So people without symptoms aren't a huge issue I would imagine.

Spread via droplets from breathing, talking, touching mouth/nose and then other objects.

[daz_4]

So our borders will be completely closed from Monday. We cannot travel. Number of cases hasn't been updated yet but two new cases are firefighters who got infected at a football match. Two units are now in quarantine. 

Edited March 13, 2020 by daz_4

[Ryukai]

2 hours ago, Summer Sun said:

Everton squad now isolating after player reported symptoms similar to Coronavirus. They played Chelsea last weekend.

It's probably all that sliding in all the spit they cover the grass in that's to blame for this spread  

[feb1991blizzard]

1 minute ago, Paul Faulkner said:

Spread via droplets from breathing, talking, touching mouth/nose and then other objects.

This is the biggest cause -  if this wasn't airborne it least to some extent, it would not be as prevalent, there is no way there would be this many cases just with poor hygiene and surface to hand to mouth transition alone.

[Yarmy]

9 minutes ago, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:

You say that as a joke but the same thought crossed my mind...

I would think that the mass vaccination of 146 million Russians would not have gone unnoticed.