Coronavirus in the US

Parent Cafe
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"Egypt is rushing to protect its important tourism sector and reassure travellers it is safe to visit after an outbreak of the coronavirus on a cruise ship on the River Nile.

Officials said on Saturday the coronavirus had been detected in 45 people, including foreign tourists, after the vessel reached the southern city of Luxor. Until then, Egypt had reported only three confirmed cases of the virus.

Reuters reports that the ministers of tourism, health and civil aviation toured a temple on Sunday in central Luxor, across the Nile from the Valley of the Kings where pharaohs were buried in tombs carved into rock.

“We are here to respond to rumours saying that there are no tourists and people are afraid of coming. Thank God, people are here,” Khaled al-Anani, the tourism and antiquities minister, told state television before the camera panned across to show tourists queuing to enter the site.

The cruise boat struck by the virus has been towed outside Luxor and placed under quarantine, state media reported. Those who tested positive were flown by military plane for quarantine in northern Egypt." (Guardian)

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Vatican Museums closed due to coronavirus
From CNN

The Vatican Museums will be closed until early April because of coronavirus concerns, the Vatican press office announced Sunday.

The museums house some of the world’s greatest art collections, including the Michelangelo-painted Sistine Chapel and a suite of rooms frescoed by Raphael.

The Vatican press office says the museums will be closed until April 3 to help contain the spread of the virus.

Greece announces public gathering restrictions as coronavirus cases rise
From CNN

The Greek Health Ministry announced Sunday that seven new coronavirus cases had been confirmed, taking the total to 73 in the country.

It also announced that all sports events will be held behind closed doors for two weeks, school trips are banned for two weeks, and that recreation centers for the elderly will be closed for four weeks.

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75,000 is woefully inadequate. What a shame.

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The CDC updates numbers at noon on Monday through Friday. So no rapid changes in numbers are available over the weekend.

"Updated March 7, 2020

This page will be updated regularly at noon Mondays through Fridays. Numbers close out at 4 p.m. the day before reporting."

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"The coronavirus-stricken Grand Princess cruise ship has been given the green light to dock in Oakland, the tour operator said in a statement.

“Grand Princess will proceed to the Port of Oakland on Sunday to begin disembarking guests who require acute medical treatment and hospitalization,” the Princess Cruises tour company said.

“Guests who are California residents will go to a federally operated facility within California for testing and isolation, while non-Californians will be transported by the federal government to facilities in other states.”" (Al Jazeera)

Moscow threatens prison for those who fail to self-isolate

"Moscow city authorities threatened prison terms of up to five years on Sunday for people failing to self-isolate in their homes for two weeks after visiting countries hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak.

The city government had announced a “high alert regime” and imposed extra measures on Thursday to prevent a spread of the illness in the Russian capital.

Those who return from China, South Korea, Iran, France, Germany, Italy and Spain and other states showing possible “unfavourable” signs of coronavirus should self-isolate themselves at home for 14 days, Moscow city hall has said." (Al Jazeera)

Czech PM: Italy should ban citizens from travelling to Europe

"Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis urged Italy to ban its citizens from travelling abroad to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

“It’s clear that Italy, unfortunately, doesn’t have it under control,” Babis said, also calling on Czechs who are currently in Italy to return home.

“They [Italians] shouldn’t travel to Europe because most of the cases in Germany, France, Spain 
 have originated in Italy.” " (Al Jazeera)

"“We have a perfectly coordinated and fine tuned plan at the White House for our attack on CoronaVirus. We moved VERY early to close borders to certain areas, which was a Godsend,” Trump said in a tweet.

Donald J. Trump
:heavy_check_mark:
@realDonaldTrump
We have a perfectly coordinated and fine tuned plan at the White House for our attack on CoronaVirus. We moved VERY early to close borders to certain areas, which was a Godsend. V.P. is doing a great job. The Fake News Media is doing everything possible to make us look bad. Sad!.

Meanwhile, a top public health official said signs of the virus spreading through the country was “not encouraging” and warned Americans may need to think carefully about attending large gatherings if it continues.

“I think we’re getting a better sense [of the scope of the outbreak] as the days go by,” Anthony Fauci, the head of the infectious diseases unit at the National Institutes of Health, told broadcaster NBC.

“Unfortunately that better sense is not encouraging because we’re seeing community spread.”" (Al Jazeera)

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US surgeon general: Coronavirus response is “shifting into a mitigation phase”
From CNN

"As the novel coronavirus spreads in the United States, the nation’s response to the outbreak has moved from a containment phase to a mitigation phase, US Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams told CNN’s Jake Tapper on "State of the Union” today.

“Initially, we had a posture of containment so that we could give people time to prepare for where we are right now. We’re shifting into a mitigation phase, which means that we’re helping communities understand you’re going to see more cases. Unfortunately, you’re going to see more deaths but that doesn’t mean that we should panic,” Adams said.

When Tapper asked Adams about some top White House officials claiming the virus has been contained, Adams said, “Well, this is a novel virus. It’s a new situation and the messaging, quite frankly, is hard.”

“The first thing you want to try to do is contain the virus — and some parts of the country have contained it, meaning they’re preventing spread into their communities in the first place,” Adams said. “Once you know it’s in your community, you want to take the steps to prevent spread within the community and to keep those most at risk safe.” " (CNN)

Were we ever in a containment stage? I think we skipped right over that. I see no evidence of mitigation efforts either.

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Grand Princess passengers to be transferred to military installations
From CNN

"Passengers on the Grand Princess cruise ship will be transferred to federal military installations for medical screening, novel coronavirus testing and a 14-day quarantine, after the ship docks temporarily in a non-passenger port in San Francisco Bay tomorrow, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services.

Nearly 1,000 passengers who are California residents will complete the mandatory quarantine at Travis Air Force Base and Miramar Naval Air Station, and residents of other states will complete the mandatory quarantine at Joint Base San Antonio Lackland in Texas or Dobbins Air Force Base in Georgia, the Department of Health and Human Services says.

Additionally, the Department of State is working closely with the home countries of several hundred passengers to arrange for repatriation to their home countries."

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O_o It should be obvious, but the virus is not coming on foot from Mexico.
From friends and colleagues travelling as well as personal experience, I can say American authorities seem to have underestimated the virus travelling on planes.
The US official response looks like a case of pretending the horses are still in the barn.
Lack of a reliable healthcare system and gig workers add intractable problems.
For almost all of us, no reason to panic or stockpile stuff. Let’s leave masks for healthcare professionals and hope the hospitals don’t get overwhelmed. Let’s deliver pasta and sauce to elderly neighbors, show them how to FaceTime/Skype just in case they need to stay home a bit more.
But there’s little we can do if things aren’t federally coordinated.
I can’t get over the lack of tests at this point, three weeks after the outbreak reached the US.

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“But there’s little we can do if things aren’t federally coordinated.”

Agreed. Right now it seems to be all at the state level. Some states seem to be doing a better job than the federal government, IMO (NYS). I am confident that if a state doesn’t have a confirmed case it is because they aren’t testing or organized enough to look.

Yeah, we all know it is a new virus. We all know it is hard. But given the resources at our command vs. other countries, we should be better prepared and should be doing a better job.

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** New York confirms 16 new coronavirus cases **
From CNN

Sixteen new cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced this morning.

This update brings the total number of state-wide cases to 105.

Here is the breakdown of cases across the state:

Westchester: 82
NYC: 12
Nassau: 5
Rockland: 2
Saratoga: 2
Suffolk: 1
Ulster: 1

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Out surgeon general is, frankly, incompetent, when it comes to infectious diseases.

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Surgeon general says he thinks coronavirus is contained in certain areas of the country
From CNN

Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams told Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union” today that he thinks the outbreak of the coronavirus is being contained in certain areas.

“If we had massive numbers of cases we would be seeing more deaths. And so we actually feel pretty good that some parts of the country have contained it just like when you look at the flu. And when we look at the the flu tracker, some parts of the country are having much more severe flu seasons. Some are having very mild flu seasons. The same thing for Coronavirus,” Adams said.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the passengers aboard the Grand Princess cruise ship, currently off the coast of California, should “absolutely not” be left on the ship. Fauci made those comments on “Fox News Sunday.”

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I can’t find her Ph.D though, her undergrad and masters is cited. “Certificate: Eastern Washington University / B.S. Biology
Certificate: Whitworth University / Masters Degree” but where is the doctorate from? That should be easy to find.

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Death due to infection by this virus doesn’t occur right away. It may take weeks, based on the Chinese experience. When it happens, it’s often abrupt.

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"Some interesting points about the usefulness of the latest UK figures, now up to 273, are made by one expert in epidemiology, who says it’s going to be important to know if new cases are forming clusters.

Martin Hibberd, Professor of Emerging Infectious Disease, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) said the numbers on their own are not very informative now.

We need to know if these new cases are forming clusters or can be traced to known cases in other ways (such as imports from Italy) to understand if we have moved out of the initial containment stage.

If they are clusters, we are sampling contacts of cases sufficiently and understanding the outbreak dynamics. If they are apparently randomly distributed, then we know there are more cases than are being reported and we can expect rapid increases in numbers over the coming days and weeks." (Guardian)

Israel to close border with Egypt

Israel declared on Sunday that it will close its border with Egypt, beginning 5pm local time. The Taba border crossing between Egypt’s Sinai region and the Israeli town of Eilat is a popular crossing point for tourists.

Egypt announced 33 new cases of coronavirus on Sunday on a cruise ship that travelled between the southern cities of Aswan and Luxor, bringing the total number on board to 45. Reports indicate the ship has since been quarantined, with infected passengers and crew flown to an isolation camp near the town of Marsa Matruh.

Matt Swider, a passenger on board the Asara cruise ship named as the site of the COVID-19 outbreak tweeted his account as he and 32 others were flown by military plane to a hospital for quarantine. “I was told I tested negative and then there was a mistake and I’m positive for coronavirus,” he said.

Separately, Egypt’s Minister of Health said Sunday that the first Egyptian to contract COVID-19 is now “in a critical condition.” The 44-year old is an Egyptian citizen who displayed symptoms of the virus after they returned home from a trip to Serbia." (Guardian)

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I have a friend who returned from China to America recently. She said that no one in the country goes out unless they have to do so. Everyone is home all the time they can be, throughout China and streets are mostly empty. Everyone wears masks when out and is very aware of sanitizing things and being careful about what they touch. It is working and cases are way down. Now they are afraid of the virus coming back to China from people in other countries. My friend got back here and said she is more afraid of the virus here than she was in China, because people don’t wear masks and don’t seem to be concerned.

She was asked to self-quarantine when she arrived mid-Feb from China via Japan. She was not told she had to or made to self-quarantine. Someone called her daily to ask her what her temp is. She was told she could go out to get supplies if needed but that it would be better if she tried to go late at night when she would be around fewer people. She isn’t using a mask because she is afraid of backlash from people scared of Chinese and scared of people in masks.

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This is what made me feel so concerned. I thought for sure we would contain this aggressively when I was first hearing about the situation in China and seeing that despite their large efforts, it was out of control because they hadn’t reacted to it for maybe 6-8 weeks when it started in probably late November. I have been completely shocked by the lack of response from the US and the horrible decision making of the CDC and other officials. The botched evacuation of the Diamond Princess and the high rate of infection in those who were on that boat and had tested negative before being evacuated shows we were not careful enough. We didn’t do a containment stage it seems, or made one with huge gaping holes. That’s the type of thing I find so worrisome.

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77% of cases (24 out of 31) in the Czech Republic are related to Italy. The remaining 4 have links to Boston, USA. Starting Saturday, all people returning from Italy (both Czech citizens and foreigners) must report to the doctor and remain in the two-week quarantine

Is Boston the next hot spot?

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@suteiki77 @1NJParent
That’s what makes me mad. We were given the gift of early warning and extra time to get ready. Yet, it was wasted.

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@mathKids Most likely related to the Biogen conference held in Boston.