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Any and all updates regarding the COVID-19 will need a source provided. Please do your part in helping us to keep this thread maintainable and under control. It is YOUR responsibility to fully read through the sources that you link, and you MUST provide a brief summary explaining what the source is about. Do not expect other people to do the work for you. Conspiracy theories and fear mongering will absolutely not be tolerated in this thread. Expect harsh mod actions if you try to incite fear needlessly. This is not a politics thread! You are allowed to post information regarding politics if it's related to the coronavirus, but do NOT discuss politics in here. Added a disclaimer on page 662. Many need to post better. | ||
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GreenHorizons
United States23250 Posts
The ones I saw were set up across from some low-income apartments and designed for foot traffic, but with ppe in short supply even for medical professionals in WA they could only use basic cloth masks and encourage those getting food to do the same. Made me sad and hopeful at the same time. | ||
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r00ty
Germany1056 Posts
Potato prices were at a record low, because no one consumes fries in restaurants and other businesses at the moment. It's 2,50€/100kg with peak low of 2,20€ this year. Feeding everybody should not be the problem. | ||
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Emnjay808
United States10656 Posts
Gas is hella cheap right now though. Used to cost 45 to fill a tank, now its only 33. | ||
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Vindicare605
United States16071 Posts
On April 13 2020 16:25 r00ty wrote: People having cars, nice ones too, while not being able to afford food is really weird to me. You can blame that on predatory loan pricing by car sales companies. These people can't afford cars, they're just being sold to them with shitty lending practices, the same shit that got us into the 2008 home lending crisis. These companies approve any loan they want, knowing if they fail the government has their backs. It's a bullshit practice that progressives and liberals have TRIED to stop, but I'll let you guess who has gotten in their way. | ||
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Gorsameth
Netherlands21705 Posts
On April 13 2020 16:25 r00ty wrote: Remember that outside of inner cities the US tends to have really crappy public transport. So without a car you can't go anywhere and won't be able to get work.People having cars, nice ones too, while not being able to afford food is really weird to me. Potato prices were at a record low, because no one consumes fries in restaurants and other businesses at the moment. It's 2,50€/100kg with peak low of 2,20€ this year. Feeding everybody should not be the problem. | ||
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Slydie
1921 Posts
On April 13 2020 08:28 aseq wrote: They seemed to be trying alright, but I don't think it caught on very well. I don't think just spreading rumors is enough to make people doubt it originated in China, they're going to have to come up with more than that: https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/13/asia/china-coronavirus-us-lijian-zhao-intl-hnk/index.html I don't think pointing fingers helps anyone though. If one person caught the virus from a bat, then it's not unthinkable this could happen outside China as well (by a different way than eating it). Unthinkable, no, but extremely unlikely. Wild animals and humans barely interact, except when we capture, eat and sell them. The Chinese sell living wild animals in the middle of big cities, and it should not be allowed, period. Wild and bred animals should not be compared in terms of the risk of bringing new viruses to humans. IIRC, ebola was also broungt to us by someone eating wild monkeys in Africa. | ||
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DucK-
Singapore11447 Posts
We have banned tourists and short term travellers for the past 1 month already. The spike in new cases were mainly from imported cases comprising of Singaporeans/permanent residents returning from abroad. As with before, anyone returning from abroad has to serve a 14d quarantine at home to reduce the chance of community spread. Those caught breaching the quarantine may be fined/jailed or have their permanent residency revoked. But with 40-50k people under quarantine, it's hard for the authorities to effectively monitor. I'd say many were good law abiding citizens and sensible people, but there's also many others that complied with the quarantine but still invited guests over to their houses which defeated the purpose of the quarantine. The government adjusted and arranged for quarantines to be served in several 4/5 star hotels in Singapore (fully paid for, catered meals included) instead for citizens returning from certain "riskier" countries like USA, UK, Italy etc. The rationale being that they can ensure these "riskier" citizens will abide the 14d quarantine and not mingle with the community. Hotel staffs are also trained to handle the volume of guests. Lastly, our hotels have almost zero occupancy anyway with no tourists, so at least there's money going their way. Do note that while they are "locked" in the hotel, they can always get deliveroo or other things delivered to the reception to be sent to them. Despite this, I think the hotel move was a little too late and there has been evidence of community spread, which means increased measures. Since last week, we started undergoing what's essentially a soft lockdown. Only employees in essential sectors such as healthcare, F&B, legal, energy, defence etc are allowed to work in the office. The rest are to have arrangements to work from home (generally most companies have been preparing this for the past 2 months). There has been foreign workpass office workers who has been permanently barred from working in singapore after flouting it. Zero chance given, that's how serious the government treats this. Building on the earlier point on essential sectors, it means all retail shops selling clothes etc cannot open. The only shops that can open in shopping malls are F&B, supermarkets, hair salons (can't dye/perm, can only cut), banks etc. Furthermore, there can be no dining in ALL F&B shops. Takeaway only. Also, all public/private swimming pools/stadiums/gyms/playgrounds are to be closed. Even my condominium's facilities are closed. No visiting is allowed now till May. You can't visit your relatives, you can't visit your friends, you can't even visit your parents (if they have a different address from you). Unless things are very dire, you can't even visit non covid patients in any hospitals. My grandma just had a fall a few days ago and fractured both her hands. Sadly, no one can visit her for now. You can still head outside for walks though. There's public parks available. Singapore is a small country (about 50km EW and 27km NS), but we have 300km+ of park jogging paths connecting the whole country. Plenty of public spaces to jog/cycle if you want fresh air. However, you're still limited to your household members as companions. You can't jog with friends etc. A big chunk of our confirmed cases (I think around 25%) also involves foreign labour workers housed in purpose built dormitories. We rely on these workers mostly for our construction industry. Many of these dormitories became clusters due to the density of workers living in it. These dormitories were built to house thousands of workers. Due to this, all foreign labour workers are too not allowed to leave the dormitories other than work (it's fairly self contained though, with clinics, shops etc). Workers housed in "infected" dormitories also have to undergo 14d quarantine. So that's the gist of the measures Singaporeans are currently undergoing. Generally inconvenient news. So now I'll briefly share some positive news. The government announced that they're committing 43 billion USD (12% of GDP) to help us and the economy recover. Pretty sure it's one of the highest per capita around (we have 4mil residents, 5.6mil population), and about half of the stimulus is funded by our reserves. ALL Singapore residents will receive up to USD1000 in handouts. To save jobs, depending on which sector you're in, the government will cofund from 25% to 75% of your monthly wages (up to the first USD3250). Eligible self employed people will receive USD700 per month. Lots of personal/corporate tax rebates/deferments were also announced. | ||
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Gorsameth
Netherlands21705 Posts
On April 13 2020 19:31 DucK- wrote:<Snip for length> Sounds an awful lot like what experts in the West were afraid could happen to the countries that managed to successfully isolate. You have to remain at top vigilance until a vaccine is ready because there is no natural buildup of immunity and any uncontained infection can quickly start an outbreak. | ||
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warding
Portugal2394 Posts
Now, the herd immunity figure is said to be above 60%, but what if those that are already infected, are those in society with more social contact (hospital staff, police, service workers)? Could it mean that by the time a new flare comes up, the R0 will be much lower because most 'super-spreaders' will already have immunity? Could it be that the best long-term strategy is to let a decent chunk of the population get infected in this first phase so that by next Autumn you'll have way lower R0 (due to factor above), plus way better testing, general population better hygiene and isolation practices and much better preparation in hospitals not just for treatment but to avoid spreading within hospitals and clinics? | ||
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WombaT
Northern Ireland25468 Posts
On April 13 2020 11:36 Artisreal wrote: If current animal farming practices are continued, especially the single animal pen style, we have a health desaster in the making. And afterwards we'll see that people have long warned that it'll happen. Antibiotics are no farming tool. They're lifesavers. That is the real problem for public health in the West, I think it’s fair to say that mutating viruses leading to pandemics aren’t particularly a current/foreseeable in the future problem. A problem that just gets dismissed out of hand prior to this time, and in this time one gets accused of hijacking a crisis to push an agenda for mentioning when I’ve brought it up in response to hysterical anti-China rants (not here, but elsewhere). In short really one of those problems that there is no correct time to ever bring up or look at. | ||
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LegalLord
United Kingdom13775 Posts
On April 13 2020 19:31 DucK- wrote: Gonna share an update on what's going on in Singapore over the past month. We have gone from 300 to about 2500 total cases. Numbers may seem small in the rest of the world, but we have to look at it from another angle. We were averaging somewhere like 5 new cases a day last month to suddenly 150 a day for the past week. So the situation certainly has worsen quite a bit. What's worse is that even an old aged home became a cluster, with I think 2 deaths already and regrettably likely more to come. We have banned tourists and short term travellers for the past 1 month already. The spike in new cases were mainly from imported cases comprising of Singaporeans/permanent residents returning from abroad. As with before, anyone returning from abroad has to serve a 14d quarantine at home to reduce the chance of community spread. Those caught breaching the quarantine may be fined/jailed or have their permanent residency revoked. But with 40-50k people under quarantine, it's hard for the authorities to effectively monitor. I'd say many were good law abiding citizens and sensible people, but there's also many others that complied with the quarantine but still invited guests over to their houses which defeated the purpose of the quarantine. Even the countries that handled it well seem to eventually run into trouble... just goes to show how frighteningly infectious this disease is. Do everything right for a long time, but then a single slip-up will set you back several weeks. Fairly sure the only countries that haven't had something like that happen are the ones that haven't tested enough to see that it is so. | ||
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Vivax
21991 Posts
Must be all from testing symptomatic patients. Which means reports of new cases might be reported as new infections, and not old infections freshly tested. The numbers of untested infected should be way way higher. | ||
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TheTenthDoc
United States9561 Posts
On April 13 2020 20:48 warding wrote: Some studies out there suggest that Spain already has had somewhere between 7-15% of the population infected due to assymptomatic/lack of testing. Assuming a few more will get infected by the time they open up, it could be up to 20ish% if these studies are true. Now, the herd immunity figure is said to be above 60%, but what if those that are already infected, are those in society with more social contact (hospital staff, police, service workers)? Could it mean that by the time a new flare comes up, the R0 will be much lower because most 'super-spreaders' will already have immunity? Could it be that the best long-term strategy is to let a decent chunk of the population get infected in this first phase so that by next Autumn you'll have way lower R0 (due to factor above), plus way better testing, general population better hygiene and isolation practices and much better preparation in hospitals not just for treatment but to avoid spreading within hospitals and clinics? Just for educational purposes (there are no problems with your post), R0 is specifically defined as the infection rate when someone infected is introduced to a fully susceptible population. So the R0 will remain the same, even if the caseload and expected people infected changes. Yes, this is pedantic, but it's just important to know because the calculations will yield similar results even if we do reach a herd immunity state-don't be worried if there is a second phase and epidemiologists report the same R0. Plus, if someone explicitly claims to be an infectious disease expert and makes this mistake, you may want to take their claims with a grain of salt. | ||
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warding
Portugal2394 Posts
Meanwhile, Portugal has the lowest number of ICU patients since the 31st of March, at 188 patients, down from a peak of 271 on the 7th of April. This seems to be the most reliable indicator of how we're doing, since the number of new cases depends a lot of how many tests you do, and the number of tests is both quite variable per day and is on an increasing trend. Apparent good news! | ||
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Gina
241 Posts
We have been staying strictly at home for a bit more than 2 weeks, except for grocery shopping once or twice a week. The kids are going crazy, used to 2 walks a day and now they are "walking" on a 1-square meter balcony. My eldest chucked his daytime sleep. The neighbours are complaining of the noise the kids make while they are trying to work from home, and threatening to call the police =( And yes, they are noisy and we parents are also both working from home (much worse than before of course). I hope that that was just letting off steam. | ||
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Nevuk
United States16280 Posts
Title of this article is a bit misleading, basically half the people who tested positive in Iceland are either asymptomatic or presymptomatic. They've tested 10% of their population so they've tested the highest amount of any country. Gamestop keeps being nutty GameStop has closed all its stores in Massachusetts, after instructing employees last week to wrap their hands in plastic bags and give customers their orders through a crack in the door. The business does not provide an essential service and is not allowed to offer curbside pickup during the coronavirus pandemic, according to the state, which ordered all nonessential businesses to shut down as of March 24. And yet GameStop continued operating, allowing customers who couldn’t make online orders to pay for and pick up games at the door. If there were no gloves, employees were instructed via e-mail to “lightly (you want to be able to get it off easily) tape a Game Stop plastic bag over your hand and arm. Do not open the door all the way — keep the glass between you and the guest’s face — just reach out your arm.” But after operating for several days in violation of the state's shutdown order, on Tuesday the inspectional services department for the City of Boston ordered the Dorchester store to close immediately. No fine was issued but a nuisance order was issued and the inspector visited the store on Wednesday to ensure it had not reopened, according to the city. On Thursday, GameStop confirmed that it had closed all its stores in Massachusetts but did not respond to further questions. https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/04/03/business/after-instructing-employees-wrap-their-hands-plastic-bags-go-back-work-gamestop-shuts-down-mass-stores | ||
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Lmui
Canada6213 Posts
The positives/million people column in the wiki article is interesting to look through. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_testing#Virus_testing_by_country Life is normalizing around the lockdown I guess. Today marks a full month of working from home for me. As much as I like the lack of travelling, I'd much rather a mixed wfh/office day, rather than a full office/wfh schedule. It's nice to see people outside my family. | ||
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Slydie
1921 Posts
On April 13 2020 23:12 Vivax wrote: Europe is still getting new cases in the thousands with the lockdowns in place everywhere except Sweden, and on Easter too according to Sitreps. Must be all from testing symptomatic patients. Which means reports of new cases might be reported as new infections, and not old infections freshly tested. The numbers of untested infected should be way way higher. It is MUCH higher for sure. A neighbor said 900.000 people were coming by Spanish hospitals with symptoms, but sent home without being tested as they were not in a condition which required treatment. On top of that are: -People with symptoms who did not go to hospitals. -People with no symptoms. In Spain, the real number of infected could be in the millions, but nobody knows for sure, and I have not even seen an official guess. Some count the number of hospitalisations rather than confirmed infected as a reference for how hard the virus has hit. As for "new" infections" it is pretty misleading as it says nothing about when the got the virus into their system. It could be a month ago. | ||
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Acrofales
Spain18004 Posts
On April 14 2020 02:17 Slydie wrote: It is MUCH higher for sure. A neighbor said 900.000 people were coming by Spanish hospitals with symptoms, but send home without being tested as they were not in a condition which required treatment. On top of that are: -People with symptoms who did not go to hospitals. -People with no symptoms. In Spain, the real number of infected could be in the millions, but nobody knows for sure, and I have not even seen an official guess. Some count the number of hospitalisations rather than confirmed infected as a reference for how hard the virus has hit. As for "new" infections" it is pretty misleading as it says nothing about when the got the virus into their system. It could be a month ago. Its why the government has a random test planned of 60k ppl. To get an idea of what percentage of the population was infected. | ||
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Foxxan
Sweden3427 Posts
User was temp banned for this post. | ||
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