Coronavirus Sars-CoV-2/Covid-19 Megathread

[Syt]

24 confirmed cases in Austria, about half of them in Vienna.

Official information is still that if you have flu-like symptoms it's most likely not Covid-19 if you haven't been to an affected region or had direct contact with a confirmed case.

So no idea how many people run around undiagnosed. 

[Tamas]

My colleague sitting next to me and her husband are both back to work today after calling the hotline yesterday due to flu-like symptoms.

So here she is sitting next to me with a coarse voice and sniffing. The two bosses near her don't say a thing apart from joking "stay away!".

Fabulous.

[Sheilbh]

People like that drive me crazy.

Stay at home - I mean work from home if you want but don't bring disease up to me

[Tamas]

All these precautions taken seem largely illusionary.

Like she told me how her pregnant friend thought she might had the virus because of chest pains and such, went in to be tested, the doctor who was supposed to test her had to rush to surgery so she was sat in the hospital for several hours among other pregnant women, then they took a sample sent her home and days later let her know its ok its only the flu.

And in the meantime waiting for that didn't stop the lady from keeping her baby shower scheduled.

We are fucked if this is how people in general approach this. Might as well just go about life as usual and hope we are left standing when the dust settles. Would end quicker.

[Tamas]

People like that drive me crazy.

Stay at home - I mean work from home if you want but don't bring disease up to me

I think she dislikes working from home.

She sustains on human interaction.

[celedhring]

We just had our first confirmed dead in Spain. Actually he died 3 weeks ago, a man that had travelled to China and died of pneumonia, but he wasn't tested at the time.

They are testing his contacts, but nobody that was in contact with him has shown symptoms and we are past the incubation period.

[merithyn]

Pence is saying any American can be tested. Labs and other experts are flat out saying it's simply not possible to test and process more than 100 tests a day.

I'm sorry, world. The US is going to ruin it for everyone.

[Tamas]

Pence is saying any American can be tested. Labs and other experts are flat out saying it's simply not possible to test and process more than 100 tests a day.

I'm sorry, world. The US is going to ruin it for everyone.

It is not what you would expect from the planet's richest nation, is it?

[Sheilbh]

Chief Medical Officer says we're almost out of the "contain" phase of response in UK and into "delay" as an epidemic is likely:

Coronavirus epidemic in UK is likely, says chief medical officer
Chris Whitty says health officials nearing second phase of strategy: trying to delay spread of disease
Rowena Mason Deputy political editor
Wed 4 Mar 2020 10.00 GMT
Last modified on Wed 4 Mar 2020 10.27 GMT

Coronavirus is likely to be spreading undetected in the UK already, with health officials on the brink of moving into the phase of "delaying" rather than trying to "contain" transmission, the chief medical officer has said.

Chris Whitty, who is helping to lead the government's response, said it was "likely, not definite, that we will move on to onward transmission and an epidemic here in the UK".

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Whitty said the UK was almost in the second phase of the government's strategy of trying to contain, delay, research and mitigate the virus.

"When I was here previously, we were firmly in contain stage. Now I think we are on the borderline between containing and delaying. But many of the things you do to contain it also delay it."

Whitty was pressed on whether coronavirus was spreading freely in the UK, with patients contracting the virus from unidentified sources.

He said: "If someone has imported a case and they are isolated, that isn't community transmission. Even if someone gets it who we know about having the disease and it happens to be passed on in the UK, that also isn't. It's when it's going from person to person to person and we pick it up. That's what we mean by community transmission. It is likely that will happen if not now then very soon ... I think it is likely to be happening at the moment, not definite."

Whitty gave his assessment as the government designated coronavirus a notifiable disease, which means some companies will be able to seek insurance compensation for coronavirus cancellations.

The move brings England into line with Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland, which have already added coronavirus to their lists of notifiable diseases.

A spokesman for the Department of Health and Social Care said: "To mitigate the impact on businesses, we will register Covid-19 as a notifiable disease. This will help companies seek compensation through their insurance policies in the event of any cancellations they may have to make as a result of the spread of the virus."

Mark Carney, the Bank of England governor, has also suggested that small firms could get cash boosts to help stay afloat.

The government released its coronavirus action plan on Tuesday, showing that sweeping new measures may be necessary if an epidemic occurs.

The Guardian revealed that police investigations into some homicides could be halted and 999 response times extended under contingency plans to help forces cope with a severe coronavirus outbreak.

Schools may be closed, public events cancelled and some doctors called in out of retirement, the government also said.

As the number of confirmed UK cases reached 51, officials said the worst-case scenario was that up to a fifth of the workforce could be off sick during the peak of a potential epidemic.

On Tuesday evening, tests on thousands of patients in hospital intensive care units were ordered by NHS England amid concerns about the possible spread of the virus among people with respiratory problems.

Twelve more people across England tested positive for coronavirus – the second-highest single-day increase in cases to date – with all thought to have contracted it abroad. Eight had recently travelled from Italy, while the others came from Germany, Singapore, Japan and Iran.

Universities are postponing graduation ceremonies and, as elsewhere, trade fairs etc are being postponed too.

[Tamas]

Some health worker in the NE of England among latest confirmed cases, but she was also coming back from Italy.

See, I am increasingly certain they don't actually test you unless you were abroad or know to have been exposed to somebody with the virus.

There is no way that during the last almost a month these 50+ travelers have not infected anyone else in the country.

[celedhring]

Some health worker in the NE of England among latest confirmed cases, but she was also coming back from Italy.

See, I am increasingly certain they don't actually test you unless you were abroad or know to have been exposed to somebody with the virus.

There is no way that during the last almost a month these 50+ travelers have not infected anyone else in the country.

That's how it's done here, plus people coming in with flu-like symptoms that test negative for flu and other common respiratory illnesses. I'm not sure you can do anything else beside randomly testing people, which seems pointless.

I'm sure that there's loads of untraced mild cases running around, but it's hard to find those.

[Tamas]

Fair point.

[Josquius]

Guy at work, a renowned hypochondriac, called in sick with corona. Apparently phoned the nhs advice service and was told to stay on the safe side and remain at home.
Quite contrary to their usual behaviour of shrugging off a ything short of a missing limb and telling you to take some paracetamol and get on with life.

[Legbiter]

20 confirmed cases here so far, all are travellers arriving from Northern Italy. Still no confirmed community spread but that will change. Faroe Islands just confirmed their first case, came in from Paris.

[Grey Fox]

People like that drive me crazy.

Stay at home - I mean work from home if you want but don't bring disease up to me

Can't work from home, Boss' against it. So I show up sick. Sorry, not sorry.