Coronavirus Sars-CoV-2/Covid-19 Megathread

[Sheilbh]

So, the latest from my neck of the woods.

The first confirmed location for a case in my county is a careworker in a care home 2 streets from me.

On the bus this morning I was talking to someone I knew from my street who was visiting the local general hospital - he said that there were cases there and they were sweeping the wards. And that the local shoe factory had had cases (three streets from me - although this was supposed to be in the news and I can't find it.)

Fortunately I am so anti-social with regards to my home town it is unlikely I have contracted it...yet.

Time to become even more anti-social, by the sound of it!

Yes - and teach your mother and other relatives to Facetime (if possible from the hospital) - just in case.

I think this is going to be a recurring theme for me - but annoyed at Sky News and all of the media who had big headlines about a London Tube driver testing positive - thtat failed to mention he'd been on holiday in Vietnam and in self-isolation since he got back, so not at work

[Admiral Yi]

I conversely, almost always work from home, but just yesterday got a project offer to go into the mother ship and work for a couple weeks in a big warehouse type room with several hundred other people.  It's not scheduled until May, but I've got a real bad feeling about it.

[Agelastus]

Yes - and teach your mother and other relatives to Facetime (if possible from the hospital) - just in case.

Unfortunately not possible. My mother has limited (controllable) movement left; basically three fingers with limited pressure at the moment.

I have caught myself listening out for coughs today on the train to Sheffield...

[crazy canuck]

https://twitter.com/wdfpodcast/status/1238619195644002304?s=21

To lighten things up

[Fate]

We get these lovely emails from the corporate overlords every day about how all is well and we're prepared for COVID-19. The party line was that we have no positive patients in the hospital with the virus (narrator: because 3 months into the outbreak this prestigious US academic center doesn't have the ability to test most patients who present to the ED with symptoms). Now the first positive patient in our city as of last night is one of the doctors/PAs/nurses who works at my hospital. They're apparently doing well in home quarantine... but now they have to isolate all of their coworkers and all of the patients they saw for the past week or two. What a clusterfuck.

[Syt]

Austrian furniture chain XXXLutz has informed all employees that they are expected to show up for work on Monday and do their jobs. They argue that the government didn't explain what is to happen with employees of closed shops on Monday.

I see the point for the administrative and office staff. I guess the shop personnel will take inventory for the next weeks?

Generally, the state will support companies during this time with special payments, cheap loans etc. Still, some companies will have to let go of personnel for a while.

Meanwhile, the president of the Austrian chamber of commerce said, "The health of the people and the health of the Austrian economy are equally important."

[celedhring]

Spain placed on full lockdown. More or less the same as in Italy.

The army has been mobilized, too.

[Admiral Yi]

Spain placed on full lockdown. More or less the same as in Italy.

The army has been mobilized, too.

What exactly do you mean by full lockdown?  Everyone required to stay in their home?  Allowed out to get food?

[celedhring]

Spain placed on full lockdown. More or less the same as in Italy.

The army has been mobilized, too.

What exactly do you mean by full lockdown?  Everyone required to stay in their home?  Allowed out to get food?

Allowed to get food/medicine, go to the hospital, take care of family members.

You can also go to work, but anything that's not supermarkets/pharmacies has been closed.

[Admiral Yi]

Allowed to get food/medicine, go to the hospital, take care of family members.

You can also go to work, but anything that's not supermarkets/pharmacies has been closed.

Any measures in place to replace lost income?

[celedhring]

Allowed to get food/medicine, go to the hospital, take care of family members.

You can also go to work, but anything that's not supermarkets/pharmacies has been closed.

Any measures in place to replace lost income?

They did some stuff this week. I.e. postponement of income/business tax, public loans for corporations, etc... but with this escalation they'd need to do more since a lot of people will lose income. So far only the emergency decree has been given to the press, the president is set to appear in a few minutes.

[Sheilbh]

10 more deaths in England, bringing the UK total to 21 - hopefully that escalation is just a blip and not a new trend

[Agelastus]

10 more deaths in England, bringing the UK total to 21 - hopefully that escalation is just a blip and not a new trend

It's pretty much in line with what you'd expect from the increase in cases though, isn't it?

[Sheilbh]

10 more deaths in England, bringing the UK total to 21 - hopefully that escalation is just a blip and not a new trend

It's pretty much in line with what you'd expect from the increase in cases though, isn't it?

There's a huge range in different European countries. For example:
Italy - 17, 660 cases - 1,266 deaths
Spain - 5,200 cases - 133 deaths
Germany - 3,750 cases - 8 deaths
France - 3,650 cases - 79 deaths
Nordics - 2,700 cases - 3 deaths

I've no idea what's driving it - with Spain and Italy you can definitely see overwhelmed health care in some areas. Maybe an older population, or worse underlying/pre-existing conditions, possibly they are more rigorous at the post-mortem stage of either testing for Covid-19 or if it was present recording it even if it was more of "death with coronavirus" rather than "death by coronavirus". I hope, whatever those factors are, they are present here so we have a lower mortality rate.

This is one of those things I'd love a journalist to report on/investigate andnexplain because the divergence within Europe is very striking

[celedhring]

There was actually a report on this in one of our newspapers today. The main takeaway is that Italy has a higher % of vulnerable population infected compared to other nations. Spain doesn't release age group of those infected so they couldn't find out. They speculated it was due to cultural reasons (live-in grandpas being a common ocurrence in mediterranean nations), aging population, or just skewed testing.