If this is all news to you and you know nothing, then I have a plain English COVID-19 Coronavirus information page here.
Current total cases 79684, lives lost 2625. (Chinese mainland 77345/2592).
New UK figures for testing and results are published at 2pm each day. So far 6,536 people have been tested in the UK, of which 6,527 were confirmed negative and 9 positive. There are also 4 positives from Diamond Princess who have yet to receive further test results from UK testing - 5 people are in hospital and 8 recovered.
Several countries have discovered their first casualty over the weekend - confirmed cases are now in 34 different countries and Diamond Princess (which has it's own category).
Borders are closing everywhere - many countries will no longer accept visitors from China, Hong Kong, Iran, South Korea, Japan and other nations. Austria has stopped trains from Italy. If you are determined to travel - CHECK FIRST - and best of luck getting back as planned.
Sadly the loss of life from the Diamond Princess is now at 3 souls.
Before disembarking was allowed to commence 634 passengers were confirmed with COVID19, with 27 seriously iĺl. 328 were asymptomatic.
Another 57 cases were diagnosed on board this weekend, even though most passengers have left the ship, and the total is now officially 691. Among the new cases are 55 crew members and 2 passengers. Incredibly importantly out of the new cases both passengers and 50 of the crew members are currently asymptomatic. A reminder that you really cannot contain what you cannot find.
Meanwhile...
4 UK and Irish passengers in Wigan have already tested positive, as have many other ex-passengers around the globe, including 7 Australia, 2 Israel, 16+ US. (Just maybe the CDC might have had an idea when they said to leave them where they were...).
4 Japanese officials working on Diamond Princess quarantine have now tested positive for Coronavirus, proving that quarantine measures cannot have been 100% effective.
China:
Over 3000 Chinese medical staff are known to have been infected and 9 are known to have died, including the head of Wuhan hospital and 2 other young doctors this weekend.
China have outbreaks in at least 3 prisons, totalling over 500 cases. They have decided not to report these totals separately. We may never have any true idea of how many infected prisoners they have, or how many souls are lost.
The Rest Of The World:
After rumours of toilet paper shortages in Thailand and Hong Kong, people rushed out to buy it and caused shortages. DON'T BE LIKE THEM. Most coronavirus patients do not have runny noses or tummy problems - how much loo roll do you honestly think you are going to need?
South Korea has had a very bad weekend. This is what happens when you miss the first case in an area. They've gone from a handful to 833 cases with 8 succumbed.
Italy has had a bad weekend - also missing their own first case, going from 2 to 155 cases over the weekend (now up to 222 with 6 succumbed 24/02 2pm GMT). They have cancelled public events, closed schools and public areas, and put over 2000 people on lockdown. The European Centre for Disease Control (ECDC) are sending in a team to support.
Iran has had a disaster, going from a few cases to 43 over the weekend, with 8 lives lost (now 47 positive with 12 succumbed 24/02 2pm GMT). They've ordered the closure of schools, universities and cultural centres.
A pilgrimage group from South Korea to Israel confirmed that 28 of the 39 members have contracted coronavirus.
Think China may be lying about figures? The US put in a request to move 50 COVID-19 positive patients from an airbase to another facility. They were denied, partly on the grounds that they are still only claiming to have 35 positive patients...
Russia closed the border with China a good few days back, but with 4209km to patrol they are wary of barred Chinese visitors and have taken the (ridiculously racist) move of asking bus drivers and others to report any sightings of someone who might be Chinese. They've declared 2 official cases of coronavirus and have 2000 people on lockdown.
Japan says the Olympic games and Paralympics ARE going ahead as planned.
Meanwhile in the Ukraine, people rioted and protested after a plane load of people returned from China, and a scam government email went out saying Coronavirus had arrived. This is what irrational fear and panic does. DON'T BE LIKE THEM.
There were unconfirmed reports about cases in N Korea about 2 weeks ago and still their govt say no.
In the US someone just got a positive test result and flew Montreal to Vancouver 10 days ago.
Clinical studies and medical learning:
China’s Center of Disease Control have published a paper analyzing 72314 recorded cases, and in the 44672 confirmed cases, 1023 patients died. This is a mortality rate of about 2.3%, of known tested cases (it doesn't include people who stay home and don't need hospital).
Your chances of becoming more ill with COVID-19 substantially increase with age. People under 60 are far less likely to become seriously Ill, people over 80 far more likely.
Common cause of loss of life is collapsed lung due to the pneumonia (Atelectasis). It can be asymptomatic, until it isn't. Seriously ill patients have high levels of Triponin - which can lead to multi-organ failure (kidneys, heart and lungs).
Chinese experts have completed some clinical trials using chloroquine phosphate and found it has a certain curative effect - this is an antimalarial drug which has been used in humans for over 70 years. They are also still trialling the use of plasma from recovered patients.
Patients who are 'recovered' are advised to self-quarantine and even live separately from the rest of their household for 14 days - it's now assumed you may still be contagious for a period of time after recovery.
An official Chinese report claims to have found 2 (or possibly 3) 'patient zero' which implies neither actually are. One had a connection to the seafood market and one does not. The findings suggest patient zero caught the virus (most likely derived originally from bats and passing through another mammal before entering a human), was unaware and may never be traced, and passed it on to at least 2 people. The seafood market was just a great place for it to spread. Waves of infection occurred on or around December 8th and January 6th.
It is important to pay attention to any lockdown or other controlling actions put into place. Even though it's not a fantasy to say we may all eventually get COVID-19, it places massive pressure on medical facilities. Wuhan is the same size as London and has had at least 11000 people in critical care beds for the last 6 weeks. It is inevitable lives are lost because people cannot get treatment for Coronavirus and all of the other things people get anyway. Stretching out infection rates lessens that, plus allows more time for vaccine and treatment development.
Every person who loses their life leaves behind people who loved them.
Sources include:
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/situation-reports
http://www.bjnews.com.cn/news/2020/02/22/693563.html (COVID-19 patient zero)
https://www.thejakartapost.com/life/2020/02/20/antimalarial-drug-confirmed-effective-on-covid-19-chinese-official.html
https://bnonews.com/index.php/2020/02/the-latest-coronavirus-cases/
https://www.niid.go.jp/niid/en/2019-ncov-e.html
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
https://www.repubblica.it/cronaca/2020/02/22/news/coronavirus_in_italia_aggiornamento_ora_per_ora-249241616/?refresh_ce
https://www.thelancet.com/pb-assets/Lancet/pdfs/S221326002030076X.pdf
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