The Brick Castle: COVID-19 Coronavirus UK and World News update 26th March

COVID-19 Coronavirus UK and World News update 26th March

Today worldwide cases of COVID-19 passed half a million. There are now 519,603 cases worldwide. The number of people who have lost their lives worldwide to COVID-19 is now 23,581. Already 123,294 people have recovered.

The UK added 2,129 cases today and now has reported a total of 11,658 positive cases of COVID-19. We had in total tested 104,866 people as of 9am this morning.

The UK has lost 113 more people to COVID-19, we now sadly have a total of 578 losses of life.

Total cases are: England 9782, Scotland 894, Wales 741 and Northern Ireland 241. Already 135 of the UK's positive testing cases have recovered.

Rep. Of Ireland have 1,564 cases and 9 losses of life.(Not yet reported)

Rishi Sunak hosted today's press conference and had the promised support for the UK's Self-Employed.
He announced a new Self-Employed Income Support Scheme.
"The government will pay self-employed people, who have been adversely affected by the coronavirus, a taxable grant worth 80% of their average monthly profits over the last 3 years, up to £2,500 per month.
Open for at least 3 months across the UK, I will extend if necessary."
"You’ll be able to claim these grants and continue to do business.
It’s only open to those with trading profits up to £50,000, who make a majority of their income from self-employment. To minimise fraud only those already in self-employment, who have a tax return for 2019 can apply."
You have until the beginning of June to apply.

At 8pm tonight, open your windows and give a round of applause for our health and social care staff - lots of whom are scared as heck because they understand what is coming. Some of whom are already going through hell, in areas of London especially.
(Then continue to stay home and make life much easier for them.)

All NHS workers and social care staff will be given free car parking in hospitals, and local council on-street spaces and car parks in England to help staff carry out their vital work during the coronavirus outbreak.
About blinking time. They should never have had to pay.

The National Car Parking Group (NCP) have confirmed that they will also provide NHS staff free parking at all 150 of their car parks in England.

Boris has announced a further £210m of aid funding for vaccine research following today's G20 call.

China is closing it's borders to any foreign visitors from Saturday because they're terrified of imported cases. About 3 months too late unfortunately.

Russia is suspending all international flights and Moscow closing all bars, cafes, parks and non-essential food and drug stores from Saturday for nine days.

The Technology Partnership in South Cambridge and Dyson engineers have designed a new ventilator and will be working 24/7 to fulfil NHS orders of 10,000 units.

Bolivia has declared a Health Emergency until April 15. The Govt will provide a basic food basket for 1.6 million families and pay full electricity & half water bills for 3 months. They also announced strong measures against domestic violence and higher fines for people found on the streets during restrictions.

Almost 1/3 of the entire world population is living under lockdown, quarantine or other coronavirus restrictions.

Clarification for UK construction workers today as a 4 page safety booklet has been published. You do go to work unless your site is shut down or you are isolating, but it has to be a lot safer for you all.

Derbyshire Police are sharing drone footage of people walking in the Peak District - it's not a holiday guys. Stay home. You think they have time to go rescue you if you break your leg? (I once broke my leg in the Trough Of Bowland, it can happen to any idiot).

Chicago beaches are closed.

A letter to parents during the coronavirus crisis

Russia gave everyone a bit of a scare by sending warships to the English Channel and North Sea last week. Don't believe the scary headlines, it's all good. Yesterday a huge Russian military convoy took doctors, medicines and medical equipment to Bergamo, Italy.

Another symptom of COVID-19 that people are mentioning quite a lot now is burning sore eyes. Some medics report people looking almost as if they have pink eye shadow around their eyes. Sadly it's not very helpful, as it's also a symptom of hayfever - which is in full bloom right now with the arrival of spring.

From today police officers will use checkpoints to stop you and find out if your journey is essential. If this disturbs you, you should clearly be at home.

The Department for Education has warned that fraudsters are targeting parents of children eligible for free school meals. Families have received an email requesting their bank details, claiming this will enable their children to continue receiving meals. Not true. Just delete it.

The Iraqi government says it will extend the countrywide lockdown until April 11th.

There are now almost 3000 COVID-19 cases in Africa.

South Africa starts a 21-day national lockdown at midnight.

It is now a crime to threaten anyone with coughing, spitting or otherwise potentially infecting them with COVID-19. It's also not a funny joke - consider the potential consequences.

More fraud with people sharing messages stating your very young children will be taken away if they get COVID-19. No they blinking won't, you'll most likely have it too, and honestly the government has enough to do already. In the extremely rare cases you become too Ill to look after your youngsters and there's no relative or friend suitable to help, they will be cared for until they can be handed straight back to you.

The UK has said it won't join in with an EU scheme to procure ventilators, even though we can if we want to. Because, Brexit.

Iranian officials are not happy with people disregarding appeals to stay at home, so they've implemented an inter-city travel ban.

The number of new cases in Italy is finally in decline. They've reported less new cases for the last 5 days. It'll take a while to filter through to the number of patients who are succumbing, but with less new cases hopefully soon their health care system will be able to keep up.

The Orient Pub in Speke has been issued with a prohibition order for remaining open. The fine for not complying with a prohibition order has no limit.

Germany must be testing like crazy. They currently have an incredibly low mortality rate of 0.5%. That's 43,646 confirmed positive, with only 239 losses of life. They won't say how many people they've tested, but Lothar Wieler, the president of the Robert Koch Institute, told journalists that German laboratories can conduct 160,000 coronavirus tests every week, but demand is soon expected to outstrip availability.

WHO Europe's Hans Kluge reminds us we aren't superheroes all the time:
“The COVID19 situation is a marathon, not a sprint. Remaining optimistic, and physically and mentally healthy, is key to our resilience in overcoming this challenge”.
“It is Absolutely natural for each of us to feel stress, anxiety, fear and loneliness during this time. WHO take the impact of COVID19 on mental health and psychological well-being very seriously”.

1960's folk pop star Ralph McTell has written a new verse for his classic hit 'Street Of London'
"In shop doorways, under bridges, in all our towns and cities
You can glimpse the makeshift bedding from the corner of your eye
Remember what you're seeing barely hides a human being
We're all in this together, brother, sister, you and I."

Some people. I've shown them as numbers because I don't know all of their names:

Country / Cases / Losses of life
Italy 80,539 (+6,153) 8,165 (+662)
USA 75,665 (+7,454) 1,100 (+73)
Spain 56,197 (+6,682) 4,145 (+498)
Germany 43,646 (+6,323) 239 (+33)
Iran 29,406 (+2,389) 2,234 (+157)
France 29,155 (+3,922) 1,696 (+365)
Switzerland 11,712 (+815) 191 (+38)
UK 11,658 (+2,129) 578 (+113)
S. Korea 9,241 (+104) 131 (+5)
Netherlands 7,431 (+1,019) 434 (+78)
Austria 6,703 (+1,115) 49 (+18)
Belgium 6,235 (+1,298) 220 (+42)
Malaysia 2,031 (+235) 23 (+3)
Ecuador 1,382 (+171) 34 (+5)
Croatia 495 (+53) 2 (+1)
Mauritania 3 (+1)