Coronavirus Sars-CoV-2/Covid-19 Megathread

[Agelastus]

Well. Just boarded a train at Sheffield station; saw a couple of apparently Chinese origin or descent wearing facemasks on the platform.

I'd heard of the phenomenon but never really believed I'd see it.

Never thought I'd be grateful that my Mother's been in hospital since December 1st; she's now estimated to be at the specialist unit in Sheffield for the next six to eight weeks which may be the best place for her to be if a pandemic really gets going.

[Pedrito]

Ok, a report from Italy:

- the contagion is slowly spreading, and the only happy people are youngsters that are enjoying their second week of school closing;

- the first case, in Milan's province, is a guy who, after meeting with his boss (only recently back from a business trip in China), in the course of four or five days did: run a marathon, attend dinners with colleagues and friends, met several people for work and leisure, played football, and generally had a very social life...

- the second case and first casualty, on the other hand, was an old man from a small town some 30 kms from my home town, who never got out of town, retired 17 years ago and every day, all day, went to the local bar to play cards with some friends. No one knows how he came in contact with the virus, considering that the town has a grand total of 7 chinese inhabitants, and is not in any way a hub of anything; the suspect is he went to some chinese massage parlor. At least he got a happy ending.

- panic is creeping, whatsapp chats are full of stupid memes and the economy is crumbling; in other words, nothing new under the sun;

- my mom, who is 75, has some fever (37.7°C) and a chest cough; all of her friends who are medics are in the middle of an epidemic of phone call-induced migraine, peak forecasted for tomorrow morning.

L.

[Caliga]

Sorry man.

[Legbiter]

Are there many of the sick requiring hospitalization Pedrito?

[Legbiter]

Second case confirmed here. Man in his sixties, just came back from Verona, apparently he was coughing up a lung on the plane over. He and the entire plane have been put into quarantine. Any Italians coming over will be placed into quarantine.

[Pedrito]

Are there many of the sick requiring hospitalization Pedrito?

Positives are more than 1.600 right now. Of those, 140 are critical, I suppose all of them are hospitalized.
Consider that in Italy there are about 5.300 ICU beds, but almost 90% of them are in use at every moment (source: a friend of mine works in Health Care dept.).
The situation is not collapsing yet, but given the long incubation time I think that in ten days we'll be at the peak.

L.

[Richard Hakluyt]

I would imagine we are just a few weeks behind you; but all the best Pedrito and hope your mother is well soon.

[Legbiter]

Are there many of the sick requiring hospitalization Pedrito?

Positives are more than 1.600 right now. Of those, 140 are critical, I suppose all of them are hospitalized.
Consider that in Italy there are about 5.300 ICU beds, but almost 90% of them are in use at every moment (source: a friend of mine works in Health Care dept.).
The situation is not collapsing yet, but given the long incubation time I think that in ten days we'll be at the peak.

L.

Same situation here, need to flatten the curve of new infections to maintain a functioning health service. Right now around 300 people here are in quarantine due to those 2 confirmed cases. Hope your mom will be fine Pedrito. Languish will be fine, we're mostly not in the highest risk groups.

[grumbler]

Soooo.... a group at my school has been planning since the fall for this spring break trip to Greece (including 4 days on a cruise ship).  Two teachers, two parents, 14 students.  I mentioned to one of the teachers last Thursday morning that I was sorry that this Covid-19 thing was screwing up their trip.  He said that it wasn't, because the virus wasn't in Greece.  I asked him what his contingency pans were; at what point in the disease progression was he planning to cancel.  He said that there were no plans to cancel, because part of the payments they'd already paid were non-refundable, so they had to go no matter what.  I boggled.

Throughout the day on Thursday, students who were going (I teach 9 of the 14) asked me if I thought they should go.  I told them that I wouldn't go, but that they should talk to their parents, not me.  The teacher leading the trip confronted me Thursday afternoon and accused me of trying to sabotage his trip (teachers only get to go for free at the rate of one teacher for every six students).  I countered that I thought it was reckless to not consider contingencies, even to the point of what conditions called for cancellation.  The school's administration is clueless and taking no action either way.

Some people seem to be oblivious to the implications of the fact that evidence of the virus's spread is, at best, two weeks behind the actual spread.

[Josquius]

In their situation can't say I would cancel.
Students aren't the richest of people, and being young and healthy even if the worst happens they'll most likely be OK.

[Iormlund]

In their situation can't say I would cancel.
Students aren't the richest of people, and being young and healthy even if the worst happens they'll most likely be OK.

I doubt they are planning on quarantining themselves afterwards.

[Eddie Teach]

The virus will be in both places anyway.

[Legbiter]

I've talked to several people going on holidays and none of them are canceling. It hasn't sunk in yet.

[Tamas]

This is supposed be number of cases in the Milan area:

[celedhring]

My Italian family was spending time over here when this exploded, they were planning to go back to Milan in a couple weeks but I don't think they'll do that anymore...

Give us 1-2 weeks and we'll be in the same situation, though.