Coronavirus Sars-CoV-2/Covid-19 Megathread

[Fate]

5,322 new cases and 427 new deaths in Italy for the last 24 hour period. Now 41,035 total cases and 3,405 total deaths.

Still not slowing down yet. Death toll has now exceeded that of China.

[Sheilbh]

God - it's awful

[Syt]

[merithyn]

Santa Cruz County is one of the counties on "Shelter in Place" orders.  Unfortunately, my job as Manager of Receiving and Mail services means I and my whole crew are considered essential.  This means we come in to work every day, go to all the mail stops and see all the freight and truck drivers, in short we are essential in taking it on the chin for interaction with the disease.  Oh, essential means we are also far lower paid than the full time office sitters who, incidentally, are complaining that the Surplus Operations (that I also run) are closed and they can't poke around for cheap lumbar support chairs or ergo desks for their work at home.

I am 54 years old with fucked up bronchial tubes from several overly harsh bouts of bronchitis years ago.  My hope is that my case will be one of the mild one, but I am not betting on it.

I"m sorry. I wish this were anything than what it is. I feel like I'm watching a slow-moving avalanche heading straight for us, and there's nothing that I can do to get people out of the path.

[Pedrito]

Personally, I'm going on rather fine. I live in a big apartment in a complex with two other families, have access to a treadmill and stationary bike, there's a small garden where my older daughter goes to do some yoga, the smaller ones (14 and 11 years old) are burning through the PS4 library - they even reinstalled my old Wii  -, my wife buys groceries every two days, we have plenty of TP and a bidet in every bathroom, we're decluttering the kids' rooms (titanic feat); but the social life is sorely missed (skype cocktail parties are all the rage down here), and the incoming spring, with longer and warmer days, will strain our will to remain inside.

On the negative side, the Conte government is going to extend the school closing well over the actual time limit - the boys will be back to school probably around the first days of May, and someone is hinting the school year won't restart at all - , and the quarantine will be extended for sure: it should've been lifted March 25th, but it will go on at least for another two weeks, I think 

I really don't know how many bars and restaurants, small shops and family businesses (and everything tied to the tourism industry) will reopen after a total lockdown of more than one month. There are tough times in sight for a large part of Italy 

L.

Good to hear everyone's ok, hang in there.

In Veneto the governor tried the Korea road, as many tampons as it was possible, and I think it's working, because the first red zone of Vo' Euganeo has been declared virus-free after having double tamponed every single citizen, and here the virus is spreading way slower than in Lombardy or Emilia, both bordering Veneto.

The real disaster is happening in Lombardy, because the dreaded saturation of ICUs has arrived. They're transferring sick people where they can, but many of them cannot be moved without risks. Some half an hour ago came out the new numbers, and they're terrifying  I don't want to think what could have happened if the first clusters were in southern Italy, where the healthcare is way behind that of Lombardy or Veneto.

L.

[Tamas]

Johnson said today on the press conference "we can turn the tide in 12 weeks". I guess empty platitudes are suddenly not enough for his audience as a journalist asked just what that means, and he failed to give an actual answer:

Q: You say you think you can turn the tide in 12 weeks. What does that mean? Does that mean we will be returning to our normal lives?

Johnson says he wants us to get on top of this. At the moment the disease does not seem yet to be responding to the interventions. A combination of the measures taken by the public and better testing will enable us to turn the tide.

But Johnson says he cannot say that by the end of June we will be on a downward slope.

But this will be "finite", he says.

Vallance says the measures in place should have an impact on the rate of growth of the epidemic.

You would expect the epidemic to come down. Then you can move to a phase where you test and trace.

There are then trials starting, one today, and vaccine trials later.

That is where we need to get to, he says.

[PDH]

Do they at least give you masks and other health gear?

That's funny

[Pedrito]

5,322 new cases and 427 new deaths in Italy for the last 24 hour period. Now 41,035 total cases and 3,405 total deaths.

Still not slowing down yet. Death toll has now exceeded that of China.

With half the number of confirmed cases 

L.

[fromtia]

girlfriend of fromtias restaurant where she works part time has now closed and laid off its entire staff. Gave everyone an extra $200 and a termination letter. Actually the right thing to do. My employer is still open, still a fully scheduled restaurant, but calling us and telling us to stay home on a daily basis, with about two people working as servers versus the usual 12, and those two making about a third of what they usually make. Im sympathetic to their plight, this is new territory for us all, but I'd rather not go and hang out in the petri dish - I'm 50 and in good health but an infection with this one still has the chance of being profoundly non trivial.

[Valmy]

Do they at least give you masks and other health gear?

That's funny

Sorry, that was foolish of me to think somebody was acting like responsible adults with their employees.

[PDH]

There are no masks to speak of, we have gloves.    That plus the natural resistance of the lower classes to hardship will see us through.

[Richard Hakluyt]

5,322 new cases and 427 new deaths in Italy for the last 24 hour period. Now 41,035 total cases and 3,405 total deaths.

Still not slowing down yet. Death toll has now exceeded that of China.

With half the number of confirmed cases 

L.

My suspicion is that Italy is not picking up all the mild cases; which increases the spread of the virus but also exaggerates the percentage of mortal cases. I think it is becoming increasingly clear that saturation testing is the way to get a grip on the epidemic. It has been tried in a small Italian town, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/18/scientists-say-mass-tests-in-italian-town-have-halted-covid-19 , with success but also with some caveats.

[fromtia]

Yeah what Richard said. Saturation testing seems to be most effective.

[Josquius]

Tampon?

[celedhring]

5,322 new cases and 427 new deaths in Italy for the last 24 hour period. Now 41,035 total cases and 3,405 total deaths.

Still not slowing down yet. Death toll has now exceeded that of China.

With half the number of confirmed cases 

L.

My suspicion is that Italy is not picking up all the mild cases; which increases the spread of the virus but also exaggerates the percentage of mortal cases. I think it is becoming increasingly clear that saturation testing is the way to get a grip on the epidemic. It has been tried in a small Italian town, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/18/scientists-say-mass-tests-in-italian-town-have-halted-covid-19 , with success but also with some caveats.

We are having the same issue. Testing is being focused on obvious cases which is exaggerating the mortality rate. The health ministry is validating a new test that would give results in 15 minutes and increase the country's capacity for testing. Some places are also deploying drive-thru testing areas because personnel is another big bottleneck. Our number of infected will probably rise quite a bit the next few days.