COVID-19 Coronavirus UK and World News update 27th March

COVID-19 Coronavirus UK and World News update 27th March

It's taking so much of my time to re-order everything and post every two days that it's actually easier to post every day. So I shall...

There have now been 590,015 reported cases worldwide. The number of people who have lost their lives worldwide to COVID-19 is now 26,939. Already 132,447 people have recovered.

The UK added 2,885 cases today and now has reported a total of 14,579 positive cases of COVID-19. We had in total tested 113,777 people as of 9am this morning.

As of 5pm yesterday, of those hospitalised in the UK, we have lost 181 more people to COVID-19. We now sadly have a total of 759 losses of life.

Total cases are: England 12,288, Scotland 1,059, Wales 921 and Northern Ireland 275. Already 135 of the UK's positive testing cases have recovered.

Rep. Of Ireland have 2,121 cases and 22 losses of life.

With the UK's COVID trinity all testing positive (if this is news to you - Surprise!! See below), Michael Gove is designated survivor and had to step up to the podium. He repeated a lot of things we've heard before and explained about the Antigen testing - which will start this weekend so that self-isolating NHS workers can find out if they actually have COVID-19 or can get back to work.

Simon Stevens, chief exec of the NHS told us 2500 people are in hospital with coronavirus. 33,000 further beds are now available for coronavirus patients. 2 further Nightingale NHS Hospitals will be built at Birmingham NEC and Manchester Central (Gmex).
33,000 beds have been freed-up in hospitals across England. We will have the equivalent of 50 hospitals ready to take COVID-19 patients. Without extreme measures and the participation of the public, this wouldn't be possible.

To ensure people stay at home and avoid non-essential travel, from Thursday onwards, if members of the public do not comply the police may:
- instruct them to go home, leave an area or disperse
- ensure parents are taking necessary steps to stop their children breaking these rules
- issue a fixed penalty notice of £60, which will be lowered to £30 if paid within 14 days
- issue a fixed penalty notice of £120 for second time offenders, doubling on each further repeat offence
Individuals who do not pay a fixed penalty notice under the regulations could be taken to court, with magistrates able to impose unlimited fines. If an individual continues to refuse to comply, they will be acting unlawfully, and the police may arrest them where deemed proportionate and necessary.

WHO have had some big meetings this week, and Head Dr Tedros says:
"Several common themes emerged about what has worked:
-The need for early detection & isolation of confirmed cases
-Identification, follow-up & quarantine of contacts
-The need to optimize care
-The need to communicate to build trust & engage communities in the fight".

The UK government asked for 250,000 people to help with the COVID-19 response. Over 400,000 of you have signed up. Thank you to EVERYONE who will keep this country turning and make sure we are all fed, safe and cared for. Volunteer Responders will be helping the most vulnerable by doing jobs such as delivering medicines, driving people home from hospital and ringing those who are isolating, to make sure they are okay and hear a friendly voice.

Councils in England have been asked to house all rough sleepers by this weekend, including those in hostels and night shelters. If councils can't find enough accommodation the Housing Department will help - and they have the authority to requisition empty property now.

Setting up a "a local coordination cell" to plan and manage the response to coronavirus, bringing together the local authority and the NHS
Stopping homeless people congregating in shelters and street encampments
"Urgently procuring accommodation for people on the streets if you have not already done so." Mr Hall adds the department will help with this if the council is struggling to find enough accommodation
Triaging homeless people "where possible" into three groups: those with symptoms of COVID19; those with pre-existing conditions but without symptoms; and those without any of the above
Securing access to food and medical care for rehoused people
"If possible," separating people with "significant drug and alcohol needs" from those without

People all over the world are 3D printing face masks to help out local medical services. There's even a Czech Ministry of Health approved design out there free to use.

From today people in Singapore who intentionally sit down less than 1m away from another person in a public place or on a fixed seat marked as not to be occupied, or who stand in a queue less than 1m away from another person, will be guilty of a criminal offence and can be fined up to $10,000 (£5,680) jailed for up to six months, or face both penalties.

Professor Ferguson, who was the person who worked out how many people are likely to die from COVID-19 in the UK, has revised his estimate down now that we are locked down. The Imperial College research team leader told Parliament on Wednesday that deaths are unlikely to exceed 20,000, and in fact could be much lower.
He said that the anticipated increases in NHS capacity and restrictions on movement make him “reasonably confident” the health service will cope when our epidemic reaches it's peak. Fingers crossed.

It took barely seconds before people on Twitter started asking if the new wording for UK Public Health England's reports means anyone who dies from COVID-19 outside of a hospital won't be reported.

The General Medical Council (GMC) has today granted temporary registration to 11,856 doctors who had left the profession.

HMRC have said "If you receive an email, text or call claiming to be from us that asks you to click on a link or give information such as your name, credit card or bank details, it’s a scam.

42 of Africa's 54 countries have reported cases of COVID-19.

Australia is quarantining any international arrivals.

Things we do know about COVID-19:
1. We know a good amount of people get no common symptoms (Studies have so far found: 18% Italy, 30% China/Japan, 50% Iceland, 70% France).
2. Most people are only ill for a week, unless they become very ill, which is often around day 8 or 9.
3. Up to 17% of people who get symptoms may get a severe form of COVID-19 and need hospital treatment.
4. The UK are far behind in testing and we are not even testing people highly likely to have COVID-19, unless they need hospital attention. Our figures are very far out. To multiply them by 10 is very reserved, to multiply by 100 is not incredible.
5. Every infected person infects around 2-3 others on average.
6. It takes an average 5 days before you show symptoms.
7. The most common symptoms are fever, cough and shortness of breath.
8. Rarer symptoms include upset tummy, pink eyes, runny nose, sore throat, loss of sense of smell, inability to breathe in enough oxygen, severe pneumonia, lung collapse, death.

Some papers are getting excited about a story from the Netherlands that the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 has been detected in wastewater (poo). This is not new news, it's been found before, but it's not even been extracted alive, let alone in good enough shape to infect anyone.

As is happening in many countries, including the UK, New York University’s medical students can graduate three months early if they agree to start working in emergency rooms and ICUs.

Famous People With COVID-19:
UK Prime Minister and Journalist Boris Johnson
Health Secretary Matt Hancock
Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty
Rammstein singer Till Lindemann

Lost Their Fight:
American Actor Mark Blum

A Chinese study (not yet peer-reviewed) took data from 7 countries and estimated about 43% of cases transmit before symptoms develop. In 3.92% of cases the patient had symptoms before the person who gave them COVID-19.

The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) have agreed a plan which may see them providing extra services during the epidemic - delivering food and medicine, driving ambulances and transporting the deceased.
Retired and ex-firemen have also been asked if they would temporarily return.

Norway have offered 2.2bn Krona towards the search for a vaccine. They are giving the money to Cepi - the global coalition for the prevention of epidemics and pandemics.

A temporary mortuary is being built at Birmingham Airport. There is a high concentration of cases around the Birmingham/West Midlands area and this is a dark but prudent move.

I have had a couple of messages now from people confused as to how the UK can be trying to keep deaths to only 20,000, when we only have 15,000 cases so far. The reason for this is time, and exponential growth.
Bob has caught COVID-19 and is feeling fine, goes out and infects 3 other people. On average it's 5 more days before they show any symptoms, and another 7 days before they either become well, or really ill and call hospital.
We've had 12 days since Bob infected them, and he never even knew it. During those 12 days, the people Bob infected also infected 2-3 people each, and those people also infected 2-3 people each, and those people also infected 2-3 people each.
By the time Bob's original friend is in hospital, 68 people have COVID-19, and all of them are actively infected, so we can assume most will still be ill.
Imagine that, but with many hundreds or thousands of Bobs. And after another week, and another month.
This is what the NHS are facing, and it will get a lot worse before it gets better. We have around a week before it really starts to explode, and we don't need to add another layer onto those numbers. Please, whenever you can, stay home.

Coronavirus has changed Chinese culture massively in some areas - fathers who barely knew their children have spent 10 weeks on home quarantine with them, and have learnt what it really is to be a dad.

A message from Joseph Heller in 1957.
“There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. "
A lot of people need reminding of that just now. You haven't gone mad, your world has. It's normal to be a bit scared. We are all a bit scared and we all understand. We are all in this together.

Italy are flattening their curve and recording fewer new cases, but their number of losses of life is truly heartbreaking, as is Spain's. France are not far behind them, and then we are next. The USA is suffering massively from it's slow reaction to COVID-19 and now has more cases reported than any other nation. New York especially is overwhelmed and testing is trying to catch up with all of the people who have been waiting for a diagnosis, while thousands more arrive each day. It's not pretty.

Some people. The numbers are just there to represent them.

USA 100,392 (+14,957) 1,543 (+248) More states yet to report.
Italy 86,498 (+5,909) 9,134 (+919)
China 81,340 (+55) 3,292 (+5)
Spain 64,059 (+6,273) 4,934 (+569)
Germany 50,871 (+6,933) 342 ( +75)
Iran 32,332 (+2,926) 2,378 (+144)
France 32,964 (+3,809) 1,995 (+299)
UK 14,543 (+2,885) 759 (+181)
Switzerland 12,928 (+1,117) 231 (+39)
S. Korea 9,332 (+91) 139 (+8)
Netherlands 8,603 (+1,172) 546 (+112)
Austria 7,610 (+701) 58 (+9)
Belgium 7,284 (+1,049) 289 (+69)
Turkey 5,698 (+2,069) 92 (+17)
Canada 4,610 (+567) 39
Portugal 4,268 (+724) 76 (+16)

Sources:

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
https://twitter.com/_b_meyer/status/1243221900408619008?s=19
https://www.gmc-uk.org/news/news-archive/coronavirus---gmc-grants-temporary-registration-to-11800-doctors
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/coronavirus-safe-distancing-rules-kick-in-failure-to-sit-or-queue-1m-apart-from-others
https://twitter.com/HMRCgovuk/status/1243538503344021505?s=19
https://www.theblaze.com/news/scientist-predicted-500k-deaths-now-says-20k
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2238578-uk-has-enough-intensive-care-units-for-coronavirus-expert-predicts/#ixzz6HtbZh2Ev
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/police-given-new-powers-and-support-to-respond-to-coronavirus
https://www.wirralglobe.co.uk/news/national/18339055.covid-19-firefighters-deliver-food-drive-ambulances-retrieve-bodies/
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.21.20040329v1.full.pdf
https://www.vg.no/nyheter/innenriks/i/K3A8pM/erna-solberg-gir-22-milliarder-til-vaksine
https://www.statnews.com/2020/03/26/what-weve-learned-about-the-coronavirus-and-what-we-still-need-to-know/