Our government - state and federal - needs to take a page out of the China book and quickly assess where and how they are going to build facilities or convert existing facilities into places to take care of more Covid-19 patients. In some ways, maybe the people getting it early will be better off assuming it isn’t life threatening for them. For those needing hospitalization, it isn’t a quick in and out of the hospital thing for many.
South Korea has roughly 12 hospital beds per 1,000 people. 13 for Japan. 8 for Germany. 3 for Italy. USA is less than 3. China a little over 4.
One concern I’ve been reading about with Italy is that as Covid-19 spreads more in the country, the southern part of the country, which is much poorer, lacks the health care quality of the wealthier northern provinces. Things could get even worse.
Someone’s tweet in Italy, translated 
"“Let’s take a moment to think about the people who fled the red zone to wake up in the red zone”
Photos and videos of people queuing up outside grocery stores in the dark waiting for the doors to open.
Stay inside, don’t travel, don’t socialise: Italy’s coronavirus lockdown rules
Country’s prime minister has put the nation of 60 million people under special quarantine measures
"Italians have been told to stay at home and avoid all non-essential travel as quarantine measures were extended to the whole country to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
Here are the main points of a government decree signed on Monday night that brings the restrictions into effect until 3 April.
Don’t travel
From Tuesday, the movements of Italy’s population of 60 million are severely limited. Travel is only allowed for “urgent, verifiable work situations and emergencies or health reasons”.
People who have tested positive for Covid-19 must not leave their homes for any reason, while anyone with a fever or respiratory symptoms are strongly encouraged to stay at home and limit social contact, including with their doctor.
To avoid work-related travel, public and private companies have been urged to put their staff on leave.
Gatherings cancelled
The latest decree prohibits “all forms of gatherings in public places or sites open to the public” – going further than the rules that went into force over the weekend in large parts of northern Italy.
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Sporting events of all levels and disciplines were cancelled, stopping play in the top-flight Serie-A football league.
High-level professional training for top national sports events and competitions organised by international bodies, such as the Olympic Games, may go ahead without spectators. All athletes, coaches and managers will undergo health checks.
Swimming pools, spas, sports halls and wellness centres must not operate, and ski resorts across the country are shut.
Venues closed
To encourage people to stay in, bars and restaurants are only allowed to open between 6am and 6pm, and only if it is possible to keep a distance of at least a metre between customers.
All museums and cultural venues are closed, as well as nightclubs, cinemas, theatres and casinos, which have been shut since the weekend.
While supermarkets will remain open, large shopping centres and department stores must close on public holidays and the day before public holidays.
School’s out
Schools and universities are closed, and all exams cancelled.
Religious institutions will stay open, as long as people can stay a metre from one another – but ceremonies such as marriages, baptisms and funerals are banned." (Guardian)
I highly doubt any claims that diluted vinegar is effective. Vinegar is 5% acetic acid, and it is even further diluted in cleaning products (or it can damage things). It leaves a nice smell of pickles, but it is not strong enough to disrupt the viral envelope of coronaviuses (which is what soap or 60% alcohol do; the naked viral RNA does not survive without it and can’t infect either).
Although not my first choice, 5% acetic acid (C2H4O2) has often been shown to have virucidal properties against different enveloped viruses. Lots of old literature. Distilled white vinegar is typically 5% acetic acid.
As per detergent or alcohol extraction/treatment of an enveloped RNA virus, the RNA does “survive” and isn’t necessarily “naked”. With alcohol treatment, the virus loses infectivity because membrane embedded virus proteins that interact with cellular receptors are lost in the solubilization. EMs reveal misshapen particles, containing virion cores and associated viral RNA (which can also be verified through other techniques).
Cavicide is one of my preferred viral disinfectants, and doesn’t have a smell of pickles, of which I am not a fan. 
https://www.metrex.com/en-us/products/surface-disinfectants/cavicide
I was around a co-worker who came to work after two days out with flu and I got the flu and have been home sick. How many people did she get sick i wonder. I’m sure you know people are contagious at least until 24 hours of no fever without meds. I think the person who came to my work sick likely due so because she couldn’t afford to take time off and see this is an important issue.
When our kids were in preschool, their rule was kids have to be fever-free w/o meds for min of 24 hrs before coming to school. That seems like a good rule for most settings. If around vulnerable folks, perhaps extend to 48 hrs.
Coughs on the other hand can be chronic and/or linger long after fever is gone.
Agree that folks have to be able to take time off for illness without worrying about being fired. If they can have some compensation while home sick and perhaps working from home reduced hours, that might make their time off more affordable to them.
Sacramento County Announces Announces Shift Away from Quarantines into Mitigation Efforts - people exposed to virus no longer need to self-quarantine but anyone sick with anything should stay home while having symptoms and only call 911 if very bad off. Seems like a pretty bad plan to stop having people self-quarantine. Like giving up preventing spread. Wonder what the reasoning is for this idea and what type of data supports it.
https://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2020/03/09/sacramento-county-shift-quarantines-coronavirus/
Here is anther story on this topic. I am not convinced their reasoning is right. It is basically giving up and saying we are nearly all going to get it and those who die will die. Not a great strategy IMO.
https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/health-and-medicine/article241047391.html
This explains the testing delay and what caused it better than anything I had read previously. It is frustrating to think we could have slowed the spread and prevented many who now have it from getting it had things gone as they should have.
@ridingthewave. Regular folk can’t just open an account at Moore medical and Cavicide…
Most the recommended name brands being sold like Lysol or Clorox type products are just fine
Yup that’s my point. We can’t afford it. And since this country doesn’t have mandatory PTO, there are a lot like us.
Well his work told him it was his decision so he decided to take another day off just to be safe.
The thing is we don’t know if he has a fever without meds because he’s been on Tylenol consistently.
"Cyprus’ largest hospital suspended most services on Tuesday, authorities said, after a medical doctor heading the heart surgical ward tested positive for coronavirus, Reuters reports.
The 64-year-old doctor was one of two individuals first to test positive on the Mediterranean island. He had recently returned from Britain and had contact with patients.
Effective Tuesday, all admissions, outpatient clinics, surgeries and visitations at Nicosia general hospital were suspended for 48 hours, when the situation would be reviewed, the health ministry announced early on Tuesday." (Guardian)
Seems so short-sighted. from everything I’ve read, it flies in the face of what WHO recommends. In fact, the WHO director said just yesterday not to give up on containment even if doing mitigation - ton do both concurrently. I’ve heard of NO county who has given up on the containment stage. Is CDC involved in this decision or is the county making this decision unilaterally?
We are continuing to be the example of what not to do as a country. Argh! It would be one thing if Sacramento County was an island nation closed off from the rest of California and the US but obviously not…
They are unwilling to do the hard work - and this, IMO, is the problem with tackling things on a state and county level, not centralized by a country.
The rest of what I want to say is bad words. 
Ohio State suspends in person classes until the end of March. Currently on spring break. Decision on labs/performance classes is forthcoming.
I agree doschicos. I don’t understand the thinking behind it other than giving up. It does go against what the WHO and the CDC and other countries are saying is best to do and what has been shown to work in China, etc. Rigorous tracking of contacts and quarantine is what stopped things in China. I hope that gets reversed. I get the idea that most will likely get the illness in the next year or two, but wouldn’t it be better to delay so that treatments are available and that hospitals are not overwhelmed and to save more lives?
IRAN - 881 new cases totaling 8,042 and 54 new deaths totaling 291. 2,114 cases are in Tehran.
“We don’t know” how many coronavirus tests have been done, says US health secretary
From CNN
US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar says his department isn’t sure how many tests for the novel coronavirus have been performed in the United States.
Speaking to CNN’s John Berman on New Day Tuesday, Azar said: “We don’t know exactly how many because of hundreds of thousands of our tests have gone out to private labs and hospitals that currently do not report in to CDC.
"We’re working with the CDC and those partners to get an IT reporting system up and running hopefully this week where we would be able to get that data to keep track of how many we’re testing,” he added.
Azar went on to say: “We think we’ve got probably 10,000 a day could be getting tested by the end of the week – 20,000 a day according to a study by AEI that I’ve heard about. We’ve got 2.1 million tests available, 1.1 million have shipped. We actually have a surplus at the moment that are awaiting orders to be shipped.”
“A private vendor shipped most of those 1.1 million that shipped were from a private vendor selling to their customers, and those entities that used their tests do not have to report back to CDC. But we’re trying to set up a reporting system where they would in effect do that,” Azar said.
[Who is in control? Where is the leadership and systems in place? This is mind boggling to me. We’re acting like a Banana Republic.]
Czech Republic becomes latest European country to shut schools
From CNN
From tomorrow, all schools and universities in the Czech Republic will close, following in the footsteps of dozens of countries around the world which have shut educational institutions in a bid to stem the spread of coronavirus.
Only kindergartens will remain open, under the measures announced by Prime Minister Andrej Babiš at a press conference Tuesday.
Gatherings of more than 100 people will also be banned, he added.
It follows similar clampdowns in Italy and Spain, forcing parents to rethink their routines and wreaking havoc on daily life.
The “global scale and speed of the current educational disruption is unparalleled,” the United Nations warned last week.
Coronavirus cases in Florida rise to 15
The Florida Department of Health has announced a new positive case of coronavirus this morning.
The patient is a 69-year-old woman in South Florida’s Broward County. She is in isolation and will remain so "until cleared by public health officials,” according to a news release from the state’s health department.
The state of Florida has now identified 15 coronavirus patients, two of whom have died. (CNN)
2 more coronavirus cases confirmed in Virginia
From CNN
The Virginia Department of Health has reported the US state’s fourth and fifth presumptive positive coronavirus cases.
Both patients are in their 50s. One is a resident of the city of Fairfax and the other lives in Spotsylvania County.
South Korea is launching an app that will allow the public to check if stores have masks in stock
From CNN
South Korea’s government will launch an application service that will allow the public to check the stocks of masks in pharmacies and other designated stores where masks are supplied by the government.
Government data on the mask stocks will be released from Tuesday evening, authorities announced at a news briefing.
Confusion and frustration has mounted due to a shortage of masks in South Korea. The government started mask rationing on Monday, allowing one person to purchase up to two masks per week from pharmacies, on designated days of the week, depending on the final digit of one’s birth year.
The run on masks appears to have sparked scams and illegal activity. Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said in a news release Tuesday that authorities are investigating a total of 111 scam cases. Two people were arrested for illegally selling masks online.
“The government will do everything it can to resolve inconveniences in regard to the new system by quickly increasing the supply of face masks. I also ask the people to frequently check and follow the mask usage guidelines recommended by quarantine authorities until there is a sufficient supply,” South Korean President Moon Jae-in said.
Moon called the decision to ration masks “inevitable measures” and recognized it may not be sufficient for certain people:
“Purchasing only two face masks per week may be insufficient for many people. It was an inevitable measure that has to be taken as supply cannot keep up with demand due to the rapid spread of this infectious disease. The system allows everyone an equal opportunity to buy face masks, but the supply is still inadequate. In addition to that, there is the difficulty of having to run the system while distributing masks to quarantine sites, medical professionals, the vulnerable in society, and Daegu and North Gyeongsang province first. I ask for broad understanding and cooperation with a mind to make some small concessions and show consideration.”
[Maybe we can have South Korea make an app for CDC to track testing.]
Philippines confirms 15 new cases of novel coronavirus, bringing total to 35
From CNN
Health officials in the Philippines confirmed 15 new cases of the coronavirus today, bringing the nationwide total to 35. No further information was provided about the patients.
The country has reported one death from the virus.
Hubei province will start issuing health codes ahead of lifting travel restrictions
From CNN
China’s Hubei province announced today that it will issue health codes for residents who want to travel within the province, in the first stage of a gradual lifting of travel restrictions.
Travel bans and restrictions have been imposed across the province since January, with the capital Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, placed under total lockdown.
Now, the restrictions are slowly beginning to lift – and the first stage will allow residents to apply for a government-issued QR health code through smartphone apps, which will then be verified by the provincial epidemic prevention database.
Residents will be given one of three color QR codes: green, yellow or red. The codes will be issued within 24 hours, but it is unclear how soon the residents may be able to travel.
Green code holders from low and medium risk areas will be allowed to travel within the province. Green code holders in high-risk areas will be able to travel in accordance with regulations of the local prevention department.
Yellow code holders will not be allowed to travel.
Red code holders will need to be treated and quarantined.
QR codes are also currently used outside of Hubei to identify people’s health status and track where they have been to help monitor the spread of the virus.
A cluster in Seoul: 50 people tied to a single call center in Seoul, South Korea, have contracted the coronavirus in what is believed to be the biggest single infection cluster in the city. This comes amid an apparent slowdown of the virus’ spread in the country, with a decreasing number of new daily cases in recent days.
Kwon Joon-wook, the vice-director of the South Korean Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said at a Tuesday news conference that 46 employees and four related family members had been infected. The first case began showing symptoms on March 4.
The employees of the call center were not wearing masks when they were working, according to Kwon.
Health authorities are now conducting an epidemiological investigation on all 207 employees of the call center who were working on the same floor.
The building where the call center is located was closed and disinfected on Monday and an inspection center has been set up on the ground floor for residents and employees to be screened for the novel coronavirus, according to the Seoul city government. (CNN)
According to a study led by one of the most well-known Chinese epidemiologists, if the lockdown of the city of Wuhan were implemented 5 days earlier, the total number of infections in China would be reduced by two thirds. However, if it were delayed for another 5 days, the total number of cases would triple.
What if the delay is 10 days? Or 15 days? Or longer? We may be facing some critical choices here soon.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
Over the past few weeks, Worldometers has shown the percentage of COVID-19 patients in serious/critical condition trending down. This morning, the reported numbers were 88% mild, 12% serious/critical (the lowest I’ve seen it). Hoping this means that treatment protocols are improving, now that MDs have a better idea of what they’re dealing with.