Coronavirus in the US

Parent Cafe
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The WHO’s director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: “I have a message for young peopole: you are not invincible. This virus could put you in hospital for weeks or even kill you.”

Italy sees biggest day-to-day rise in deaths
Italy announces 627 more coronavirus deaths, the biggest day-to-day increase in the country’s four-week epidemic.

There was panic on a ferry with 385 passengers doing the one hour crossing from Uruguay to Argentina Thursday night when it was discovered that a 21-year-old male coronavirus patient was on board.

Ambulances with health officials in full-body white sanitary suits rushed to greet the ferry’s arrival in Buenos Aires. They boarded the ship and quickly removed the youngster to a private health clinic.

Argentina’s security ministry tweeted images of the procedure and said it had arrested the young man as well as two female passengers who
refused to be screened upon arrival.

Nine persons, including the young man, have been placed in hospitals, while the remaining passengers and crew of 19 have been placed in
quarantine.
According to press reports, the young Argentinian had recently arrived from Holland. In Uruguay he developed symptoms and was under observation at a a medical facility. Some reports say he escaped the facility, others that he left before receiving his test results.

With a group of friends, the teenager is said to have managed to trick the fever inspection at the port of Colonia by taking a paracetamol before boarding.

The exact details are still forthcoming. According to one report, Uruguayan authorities alerted the ferry company Buquebus of the situation when the ferry was about to arrive in Buenos Aires.

Another report states that the young man started feeling unwell and alerted ship officials that he had been diagnosed with coronavirus. The young
man is said to have received an email while on board from the Uruguayan clinic saying he had tested positive.

Passengers who had started to disembark were told to return to their original seats to work out who had been sitting in close proximity to the young man, a passenger on the ship said in a WhatsApp audio to his family. “This is total chaos,” the passenger said.

Passengers and crew have been distributed among four hotels in downtown Buenos Aires, which have been turned into makeshift quarantine facilities.

Some passengers resisted being quarantined and had to be forcibly removed from the ferry, with images of their resistance going viral.

A jet carrying 359 people including hundreds of American and Canadian cruise ship passengers home from France landed at Atlanta’s international airport on Friday as emergency responders prepared to screen them for the coronavirus, federal officials said.

Three people on the flight have tested positive for COVID-19 but have no symptoms, while 13 others are sick but haven’t been tested, the US Department of Health and Human Services said Friday.

Guardian

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Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau has announced his government will turn away asylum seekers at the US-Canada border as a temporary measure, meant to further halt the flow of people into Canada amid the coronavirus outbreak.

“Canada and the United States are announcing a reciprocal arrangement that we will now be returning irregular migrants that attempt to cross anywhere at the Canada-U.S. border,” Trudeau said Friday.

Speaking to reporters from self-isolation for the fifth day in a row, Trudeau said the plan to deny entry into Canada for asylum seekers is part of a broader agreement struck with the United States. The two countries announced plans earlier this week to shutter the 5,500 mile shared border to all non-essential travel. Trudeau stressed the “exceptional measure” to deny asylum seekers was temporary. The federal government had previously weighed placing those seeking to enter Canada into mandatory self-isolation. Canada has received roughly nearly 55,000 asylum claims since February, 2017.

The prime minister also announced plans to support manufacturing companies across the country, including large automative companies, as they quickly re-tool much of their production lines to build much-needed medical equipment, including ventilators and masks.

Early indications suggest the virus is hitting the Canadian economy hard as businesses across the country close. Trudeau said the government has received 500,000 employment insurance applications this week— compared to 27,000 from the same period in the prior year.

Canada has close to 1,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 11 documented deaths from the virus.

Bogotá, Colombia’s capital, is the latest Latin American capital to go into city-wide quarantine, albeit for a trial period until Tuesday.

The Andean capital, with a population of nearly 8 million, went under a quarantine at midnight local time, shuttering businesses in a bid to slow the spread of Covid-19. The measure is an effort from local authorities to prepare for widespread quarantines, which they say are now inevitable as confirmed cases of the disease caused by the novel coronavirus reached 128 in Colombia on Thursday.

“It is an exercise in preparation ahead of an eventual quarantine,” Bogotá’s mayor, Claudia López, said in a press conference, announcing that bus terminals will also be shut down over the long weekend. “We must stay in our homes to avoid what happened in Italy when a quarantine was declared and many travelled and spread the virus around the rest of the country.”

Capital cities across Latin America are currently locked down, including Lima in Peru, Buenos Aires in Argentina, and Caracas in Venezuela.

The quarantine in Bogotá has been mimicked by other provincial officials in Colombia, with other cities also locking down despite some confusion sowed by the president, Iván Duque, who on Wednesday said that only the national government has the jurisdiction to declare quarantines. Medellín and Cali, Colombia’s two largest cities outside Bogotá, will also go under quarantine on Friday evening.

On Thursday, Duque announced that all international flights to Colombia would be suspended from 23 March, and that nationals would be barred from entering after then for a period of 30 days. Land and maritime borders were closed on Tuesday, while gatherings of more than 50 people are banned.

Guardian

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Schumer: “At the moment, the McConnell bill is inadequate”
From CNN’s From Ali Zaslav

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said that “at the moment, the McConnell bill is inadequate,” in remarks on the Senate floor Friday.

Schumer added that “We need to work with uncommon speed and make this next bill what it needs to be… Democrats are already at work with our Republican colleagues to get this done.”

Schumer said he spoke with President Trump earlier today and urged him to deploy the Defense Production Act among other things, to which he said, Trump agreed to do so.

“I spoke with President Trump about these five priorities. I mentioned them all and President Trump told me he was open to these ideas. In fact, the president explicitly told me he would oppose companies using bailout money on buybacks, even though such a prohibition is not in McConnell’s bill. I also urged the President to immediately deploy the Defense Production Act and harness industry to get ventilators and other critically needed medical equipment to those who need it. He told me he would do so," Schumer said.

The legislation in question: The emergency economic aid proposal would include direct payments to Americans under a certain income threshold, $200 billion in loans to airlines and distressed industry sectors and $300 billion in forgivable bridge loans for small businesses.

The proposal’s formal rollout sets the stage for Republicans and Democrats to try to reach a bipartisan agreement to move a stimulus package forward as the virus continues to spread.

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@milee30 @greenwitch

Yes, NYS tested more because Cuomo made deal with local labs as soon as the federal government allowed states to take testing into their own hands. He actively seek out labs before that and pressed FDA to approve them. This was not handed down to NYS by the federal government. This is a result of NYS actions.

I agree it’s appealing that there are still not enough tests. Had the tests been fully available, the numbers would have reached these levels much earlier, restrictions would have been put in place earlier too, and many lives would have been saved.

BTW The latest NY numbers are no good either. They run over 10,000 tests in the last 24 hours, out of which 2950 came back positive. We are talking about close to 30% positive rate :frowning:

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Jordan has announced a round-the-clock curfew from Saturday morning until further notice to battle the coronavirus outbreak, the government announced.

The exceptional measure, to be applied for an indefinite period, was taken after “citizens did not respect directives” calling on them not to leave their homes except for extreme emergencies, government spokesman Amjad Adayleh said.

He warned that lack of compliance with the curfew would result in “immediate imprisonment, which will not exceed one year”.

Major London hospital has no critical care capacity left

A major London hospital has declared a “critical incident” because of a surge in patients with coronavirus, HSJ reports.

In a message to staff, Northwick Park hospital in Harrow said it has no critical care capacity left and was contacting neighbouring hospitals to discuss transferring patients who need critical care to other sites.

The message, sent last night, said:

I am writing to let you know that we have this evening declared a ‘critical incident’ in relation to our critical care capacity at Northwick Park hospital. This is due to an increasing number of patients with Covid-19.

This means that we currently do not have enough space for patients requiring critical care.

As part of our system resilience plans, we have contacted our partners in the North West London sector this evening to assist with the safe transfer of patients off of the Northwick Park site.

Tunisian president, Kais Saied, on Friday ordered a general lockdown in the country, restricting public movement to counter the spread of the coronavirus. Speaking in a televised broadcast, Saied said he was asking the majority of people to stay at home and stopping movement between Tunisian cities.

The luxury London store Harrods, which stayed open throughout the bombing during the second world war, has announced it is shutting.

It will keep open its food halls and pharmacy, but the rest of the department store will close.

The welfare of our community of colleagues, customers and partners has been our absolute priority throughout this time of uncertainty,” managing director Michael Ward said in a statement.

It will close from 7pm (1900 GMT)on 20 March.

With restrictions being eased across China, the world is getting a glimpse of life after coronavirus.

In Shanghai, women walk arm in arm past a reopened shopping district. Narrow pavements are crowded as residents browse food shops. At one entrance to a hospital, a man wore his hazmat suit partly unzipped as he waved in cars.

In Beijing, traffic has begun to return and more residents can be seen out on the streets, in parks and in shopping and restaurant districts. Jia Shu’na, 20, travelled to Beijing on Wednesday, a stop along her route back home to Inner Mongolia to resume classes.

“Now I feel like things are gradually recovering. Now a lot of transportation has opened up,” she said, sitting in a park with her luggage. Jia said she noticed long lines at the train station when she departed from the southern province of Yunnan, and several people in each train car. “Many people have gone out. It’s much better than before,” she said.

More than 80,000 people have been infected by the virus that first appeared in the city of Wuhan, killing more than 3,000, but the number of new infections per day has dropped dramatically.

Guardian

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Every major carmaker in the UK and Europe is suspending or cutting production as the disruption from the coronavirus outbreak spreads – with only lower-volume manufacturers such as Aston Martin keeping factories open.

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) and Bentley Motors have become the latest British carmakers to suspend production at their UK factories.

In Sweden, Volvo announced on Friday that it would close its factory, the last remaining high-volume plant in Europe, from 26 March.

Europe’s lockdown has disrupted global supply chains, and massively reduced demand in all key markets is thought by most analysts to be all but certain.

Bavaria to impose curfews from Saturday morning

Bavaria is going to impose curfews from Saturday morning in an attempt to further curb the spread of Corvid-19 in the southernmost German state.

From midnight on Friday people in Bavaria will only be allowed to leave their homes if they can show their trip outside is strictly necessary, such as commuting to work, vital shopping, doctors appointments or seeing people who require care.

“We’re shutting down public life almost completely,” Bavarian state premier Markus Söder said.

The conservative politician justified the further restriction of free movement by pointing to the latest spike in figure: confirmed Covid-19 cases in Bavaria rose by 35% from Thursday to Friday, with number of deaths rising to 15. Söder also said appeals for people to voluntarily curtail their movement had not worked.

People would still be allowed outside to go for runs and walks, Söder said, adding “fresh air is good for you”. People are advised to do so on their own or within family groups, with police advised to hand out fines for non-compliance.

New York City’s department of health has changed its guidance on doctors and nurses who come into direct, prolonged, and unprotected contact with patients who are known to suffer from the coronavirus.

In short, unless they are exhibiting symptoms, they need to keep working. We heard from medical staff who are concerned that the new policy is spreading the disease.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/mar/19/new-york-health-workers-raise-concern-over-advice-to-work-after-virus-exposure

Guardian

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New York has a lot of academic programs in International Medicine, Infectious Diseases, Tropical Medicine and Global Health. We have more than our share of clinicians who are certified and active in these areas. For these people (PhD’s, MD, nurses, PA’s and people in public heath) red flags went up early about the new virus.

Institutions such as the NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center’s Division of Infectious Diseases took an early lead on testing for SARS-CoV-2. From the first reports of the virus, the talk was focused on three things:

  1. Turn on the lights! (without testing, we are in the dark)
  2. Prepare all HCW and institutions to be as safe as possible.
  3. All hands on deck for research of treatments and vaccines.

Also, the governor listened right away about testing, and got to work getting private laboratories up and running. 28 public and private labs were approved by the FDA to do testing.

As far as the ship, it is one ship with 1,000 beds, which will not arrive for several weeks. New York City has a population of 8.7 million people, with very high population density.

We can blame ourselves collectively because we weren’t adequately aware and prepared for a pandemic, but now we need to do everything we can to fight the virus. New York isn’t doing more testing because they somehow threw anyone under the bus. It was a public health policy, embraced early, and pursued relentlessly by many (including DH).

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The authorities on the French Riviera are using a drone fitted with a loudspeaker to instruct people to “stay home”.

The drone flew over Nice this morning and has been deployed over Cannes this afternoon.

“Remember the instructions regarding the Covid-19 epidemic. All movements outside the home are banned except where there is a derogation,” was the message.

“Please respect a safe distance of at least one metre between each other,” it added.

The device is being piloted by a local drone business run by former police officer Sabri Ben Hassen.

“For the moment, we’ve only one and it’s sending out the message with a 100 decibel speaker. To give some idea, an Airbus produces 120 decibels when it is taking off,” Ben Hassen, 33, told AFP.

The operation was commissioned by the local police prefect.

[ page out of the Chinese playbook ]

The UK government has banned the parallel export of 80 crucial medicines – including adrenaline, insulin, paracetamol and morphine – to protect supplies during the coronavirus outbreak.

The government describes parallel exporting as “when companies buy medicines meant for UK patients and sell on for a higher price in another country, potentially causing or aggravating supply problems”.

The Department of Health said that any company found to be parallel exporting could face tough action from the country’s drug regulator, including the removal of their trading licence.

US box office drops 97% year-on-year on Wednesday to reach historic low

With only around 440 cinemas of 5,600 still open across the US, Wednesday’s midweek box office takings hit a historic low with $300,000 recorded.

Most multiplexes, including the AMC, Regal and Cinemark chains, closed earlier this week. It is thought that some drive-ins, whose revenue is not officially recorded, remain open.

The same Wednesday in 2019 recorded almost $11m in ticket sales while last Wednesday’s box office was $7.7 million, according to Comscore. The Hollywood Reporter suggests “analysts say $300,000 is no doubt the lowest number in modern history for a single weekday”.

Guardian

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It is difficult, the markets in say Wuhan are just a tip of the iceberg in terms of human desire to eat wild animal meat.

Big city markets will likely be enforceable closed (as happened with live chicken markets in Hong Kong).

Rural markets across Asia, countryside, mountainous areas in China, Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand are not soon going to cease sale of civet cats, monkeys, pangolins, etc., etc.

The bushmeat culture in much of Africa (HIV and Ebola) is even bigger.

Americans eating deer, pigs, squirrels, rattlesnakes, roadkill …

Who knows what livestock and pet animals can add to the problems.

By the way, my factory in Wuhan reopened this week …

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That’s awesome @sorghum !

I hope that’s what is to come here soon too!

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An NBC employee, 61 years old, has died from coronavirus. He was diagnosed earlier this week. Andrea Mitchell is choking up.

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I am so sorry to hear. I thought NJ tests everyone who has been exposed to known cases, not just having symptom. At least what our mayor said in an email about our town having a confirmed case.

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DC mayor announces first coronavirus death
From CNN’s Adrienne Winston

Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser said the district’s first coronavirus death is a man in his 50s.

The patient was “a 59-year-old male” who “was admitted to a local hospital last week, presenting with symptoms of fever and cough as well as other underlying medical conditions," she said in a statement, adding that he later tested positive.

“As a community, we must continue to support one another during these uncertain times. Everyone must do their part so that we can blunt the spread and protect our families, friends, and neighbors,” Bowser said.

FDA allows expanded use of remote medical devices for health care workers
From CNN’s Shelby Lin Erdman

The US Food and Drug Administration announced a temporary policy change Friday to allow the expanded use of “FDA-cleared non-invasive, vital sign-measuring devices” so health care workers can monitor coronavirus patients remotely.

The devices include those that can measure body temperature, respiratory and heart rate and blood pressure.

“This policy applies to certain modifications to the indications, claims, functionality, or hardware or software of FDA-cleared non-invasive remote monitoring devices used to support patient monitoring,” the agency said.
The FDA’s Principal Deputy Commissioner Dr. Amy Abernethy said in a statement that the agency wants to “ease burdens on health care providers and facilities” during the national coronavirus public health emergency.

“Allowing these devices to be used remotely can help health care providers access information about a patient’s vital signs while the patient is at home, reducing the need for hospital visits and minimizing the risk of exposure to coronavirus,” Abernethy said.

UK government covers wages for virus-hit businesses
UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced a package to protect workers and companies in a bid to preserve millions of jobs amid the downturn sparked by the coronavirus outbreak.

The finance minister said during a daily news conference on Friday that for “the first time in history,” the British government would pay 80% of wages of employees who are not working, up to £2,500 ($2,900) a month.

Rishi Sunak
:heavy_check_mark:
@RishiSunak
1/ Getting through this will require a collective national effort, with a role for everyone to play. It’s on all of us.

Our Plan for People’s Jobs and Incomes is a combination of measures unprecedented for a government of this nation. The first part is to protect people’s jobs.

The chancellor said the package would be open to any employer in the UK, covering the cost of wages “backdated to March 1 and will be open before the end of April for at least three months.”

He added that a coronavirus business loan package would be interest-free for 12 months and also announced an increase to welfare payments.

“Taken together, I’m announcing over £6 billion ($7 billion) of extra support through the welfare system,” he said, calling on businesses to stand by their employees.

The “unprecedented” economic rescue plan comes as Prime Minister Boris Johnson called for the closure of pubs, theaters and restaurants. CNN

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One of my relatives is stuck at one of their homes abroad. The US Government said the military would evacuate. The Embassy called & said “Can you get to the airport in one hour & we’ll fly you back to DC ?” Answer “No.”

Was told by the Embassy to wait by the phone since early yesterday.

The airport is an hour away.

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I love that grocery workers are considered “essential” workers now.

That’s one point for the workers that we just walk past daily and don’t think too much about them. That’s one for the little guy /gals ?.

Just a small commentary…
Now back to your locally scheduled news.

Wonder what it will be about ??.

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Concern as large numbers take to the roads for Iranian new year

Appeals by the Iranian government for the nation to stay at home at the start of Iranian new year have been widely ignored with more than 1.2m taking to the roads, according to the Iranian police.

Northern towns on the Caspian coast, one of the main holiday destinations, reported tens of thousands of cars trying to reach them.

Latest figures published Friday showed Iran now has 19,644 cases of infection and 1,433 deaths. New infections in the past 24 hours was 1,237 and the number of new deaths 149.

The number of new infections is a record for a single day, and the number of deaths, the same as the day before.

Every layer of Iranian society, clerical army and national, as well as local government, had urged Iranians to stay at home at New Year, a time when Iranians traditionally travel to see friends and family and celebrate the coming of Spring.

Authorities in Mashad, Iran’s second most populous city, and the capital of Khorasan-e Razavi province in the North West said traffic was only 2 % down on the previous year, despite calls by city councillors for people to stay away.

In Spain, where new statistics revealed that the death toll in Spain has surged to 1,002, the country is scrambling to contain an epidemic that has spiralled into one of the worst in Europe.

More than a third of the documented cases are in Madrid. On Friday, army specialists were set to begin entering care homes to help with disinfection after the virus claimed more than 50 lives at elderly care facilities across the region.

While health authorities have warned that the peak of the crisis is still a few days away, those on the frontlines described beleaguered hospitals operating near capacity, their struggles exacerbated by a severe shortage of protective gear such as masks and gloves.

“The current situation in hospitals in Madrid is critical,” said Ángela Hernández, of the Association of Doctors and Professionals in Madrid. “The health care system in a state of alarm.”

Earlier this week, her association began offering – via telephone or email – free therapy to healthcare professionals in the region in hopes of helping them better cope with the crisis.

Aranzazu Loa, whose 68-year-old mother is being treated for pneumonia in a hospital on the outskirts of Madrid, described a chaotic situation. “There are patients with pneumonia who have been left sitting on chairs in the emergency ward for 48 hours, forced to sleep in these chairs as they wait for the results of their Covid-19 tests,” she said.

The regional leader of Madrid denied reports that healthcare workers were being forced to decide who gets potential life-saving care. “The healthcare system treats all patients equally,” Isabel Díaz Ayuso told broadcaster Antena 3. “No one is being singled out.”

The country’s health minister on Thursday promised reinforcements for the system, announcing plans to recruit from groups such as medical students and recently retired physicians to add as many as 50,000 healthcare workers to the system.

Guardian

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Malaysia will mobilise the army to help enforce curbs on movement aimed at reining in the coronavirus, the government said today as it grapples with the highest number of infections in south-east Asia.

Malaysia reported 130 new infections on Friday, taking its total to 1,030, accounting for nearly 40% of those across south-east Asia.

Since Wednesday, Malaysia has closed its borders, schools and non-essential businesses and ordered people to limit going outside, warning of a “tsunami” of cases if the curbs are not followed.

But people continued to go to restaurants and parks, the defence minister, Ismail Sabri Yaakob, said.

“The army will begin mobilising on Sunday,” he told a news briefing, according to the Reuters news agency. “We are confident with the army’s assistance, we would be better able to enforce this order.”

Austria: infections trend “encouraging”
Austria will extend its coronavirus restrictions until 13 April, the chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, said today.

After the country reported more than 2,200 coronavirus cases and six deaths from the global pandemic, he added, however, that the trend towards infections was “encouraging”.

Authorities imposed severe restrictions on movement on Monday in response to the developments in Italy and a sharp increase in the number of coronavirus cases in some of its regions.

“Hold tight,” Kurz addressed Austrians at a news conference. “We must not slow down. We must stick with the measures we have taken.”

For once, an entire country is begging for bad weather this weekend, as Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, said the behaviour of the population tomorrow will crucially influence whether her government will have to issue curfews from Monday.

“Saturday is a crucial day, and we will keep a close eye on that”, the German chancellor’s chief of staff, Helge Braun, told news magazine Der Spiegel.

“While people usually used their weekends to socialise with friends and relatives, “this is currently not an option outside the family core,” the CDU politician added.

“If that doesn’t happen, then it could happen that the federal states have to take further measures that we would like to avoid”.

Schools, nurseries, bars, nightclubs and non-essential shops have been closed in most parts of Germany since Tuesday, in an attempt to find a “third way” between a full lockdown and the more laissez
-faire approach to curbing the spread of Covid-19 taken by the UK or the Netherlands.

In Berlin, streets have been noticeably emptier throughout the day, but the measures to curb social interaction also seem to have led to an increase in the number of people going out for a run or a cycle in the park.

On Sunday evening, Merkel will hold a phone conference with the premiers of Germany’s 16 federal states in which a full lockdown is expected to be discussed.

The cities of Freiburg and Leverkusen have already announced lockdown plans of their own. Freiburg’s two-week ban comes into effect on Saturday, banning citizens from entering public places including streets, squares, public green spaces and parks.

Guardian

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More NBA players test positive for COVID-19:

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/28928495/celts-marcus-smart-two-lakers-players-latest-test-positive-coronavirus

This means that 14 NBA players so far are known to have COVID-19. There are about 450 NBA players total, so that means about 3% are known to have gotten it.

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Remember when people thought shutting down pro sports was an overreaction?

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Yes, I think the NY state government has done a better job of ramping up and given the lack of federal assistance, any state that doesn’t have strong local leadership is just SOL.

I wouldn’t even be too upset about this if you guys stopped sending us all your idiot tourists and old people who infect us, get our beaches closed and then disproportionately use the scarce healthcare resources here (the old people do.) Do you see many FL license plates up in NY right now? No? Well we’re still inundated with New Yorkers here… seems like if you send your idiots and old people here, perhaps an agreement to share the scarce resources for testing should be discussed.