The UK added 2,619 cases today and now has reported a total of 22,141 positive cases of COVID-19. We had in total tested 134,946 people as of 9am this morning.
As of 5pm yesterday, of those hospitalised in the UK, we have lost another 180 people to COVID-19. We now sadly have a total of 1,408 losses of life.
Total cases are: England 18,594, Scotland 1,563, Wales 1,451 and Northern Ireland 533. Already 135 of the UK's positive testing cases have recovered.
Rep. Of Ireland have 2,615 cases and 46 losses of life (not yet reported).
There have now been 764,866 reported cases worldwide. The number of people who have lost their lives worldwide to COVID-19 is now 36,864. Already 160,148 people have recovered.
At the UK Press conference today our rabbit in the headlights was Dominc Raab. He's the Foreign Secretary & First Secretary of State, so covered UK nationals abroad.
He reminded us 17th March the Government advised everyone against foreign travel, and on 23rd March they advised everyone to return home. There are still thousands of British travellers abroad and the UK are working with other governments, airlines and other agencies in order to try and repatriate as many people as they can, as quickly and safely as they can.
Where commercial flights are still available, book tickets and go home asap. Where commercial flights are no longer available, tens of thousands of British travellers will be flown back under £75m of new charter flight arrangements starting this week. Follow UK Embassy social media in the country you are in to keep updated.
The press questions were honestly mainly "we can't give you an answer to that" questions about figures. It wouldn't matter who was standing there, they can't tell you something we just don't know. We are still roughly following France's pattern, but we can't be precise as to whether we'll be exactly the same point as them in a few days or not. The assumption is it will be similar.
The SEC (Scottish Event Campus) in Glasgow will be our 5th temporary hospital. It will have 300 beds to start with and has capacity for 1000 patients.
The Scottish Government have launched the Scotland Cares campaign to encourage people to volunteer during the coronavirus pandemic. In the first 4 hours over 10,000 people volunteered.
In case you hadn't spotted it, current losses of life in the UK are only those who succumbed in hospital. From tomorrow the Office of National Statistics will begin collating all figures, including deaths in the community on a weekly basis. So it looks like one day a week might those extra numbers added. Don't be alarmed if/when that happens.
Head of the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) Prof Andrew Goddard has told the PA news agency that about 25% of the UK's NHS doctors are currently off work, either because they have contracted coronavirus or because a family member or housemate is ill.
A group of UK manufacturing firms including Rolls Royce have received a government order to build 10,000 ventilators. The operation is called Project Oyster.
According to Hugh Pym: "Simon Stevens says there are now more than 9,000 COVID-19 patients in English hospitals. He says overall testing numbers will double this week to 16,000 a day - and some be done for NHS critical care staff".
Mount Sinai Health System and Samaritan's Purse are jointly setting up a field hospital in New York's Central Park. The 68 bed hospital should be ready by Tuesday.
There were horrific scenes in India as non-permanent residents attempted to leave Delhi. You don't want to be in a crowd during an epidemic, but that's what happened on a huge scale. Up to 9m migrant workers and non-residents found themselves out of work when the lockdown was initiated, and desperately want to return home. Inter-state travel has been suspended and hundreds of thousands of people face a long walk home, if they can get through checkpoints. The few bus operators running limited services are completely swamped by massive queues of thousands of people.
A date for your diary. The Tokyo Olympics will take place July 23 - August 8th, 2021. Tokyo Paralympics will start on August 24, 2021.
Famous People With COVID-19:
Boris Johnson's Chief Advisor Dominic Cummings (suspected)
Lost Their Fight
NHS ENT consultant and frontline medic, Amged El-Hawrani,
Public Health experts from the National Taiwan University have told their government they should expand COVID19 testing when they find community transmission, to discover asymptomatic patients. Taiwan currently has the capability to do this, whereas countries with more active outbreaks often struggle to keep up, let alone test contacts with no symptoms.
Countries which test a broad range of contacts are giving us the best statistics on how many people get mild symptoms, and how many people never have any symptoms at all when they catch COVID-19. Estimates average around 30-40% have no symptoms, and of those people with symptoms, around 15-20% will get the severe form of COVID-19, with pneumonia which benefits from hospital treatment.
Japan have expanded their list of countries with an entry ban to include the USA, most of Europe and about half of Asia.
Austria is making the wearing of face masks compulsory.
Germany is considering making the wearing of masks compulsory for such activites as shopping.
Wearing face masks is something which is really coming up a lot now. If you have COVID-19 and wear a mask, you are far less likely to spread it. In countries where people are obliged to wear masks, it does seem to make a difference. The big problem is there is a worldwide shortage, and because so many people have no symptoms or very mild symptoms, we would all have to wear a mask just in case. Keep 6ft away from anyone else's face - except for your own household, or maybe including them if you want the sofa to yourself.
Marcus Rashford, 22 year old Man Utd and England player has joined forces with charity FareShare to help children in the Manchester area get a good lunch after schools were closed.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has invoked Pandemic Emergency Law, which includes the right to rule by decree indefinitely. His opposition are not amused.
Indians have contributed en masse to a fund called PM-CARES (Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations).
Belarusian President Lukashenko has strong feelings about coronavirus and says "we will implement a quarantine only when it is really needed."
He's informed his people the best ways to stay healthy include drinking 50ml of vodka a day, eating breakfast on time, working in the fields and regular trips to the sauna, and he's apparently impressed with Donald Trump's comments about keeping the economy turning.
Belarus is the only country in the world which hasn't taken any measures to prevent spread of coronavirus, Many of the citizens are choosing to stay home anyway.
Mercedes F1 are manufacturing CPAP machines for use by coronavirus patients. Traditionally used to keep people with sleep apnoea breathing steadily through the night, they offer the pressure needed to open the lungs. They aren't always the safest option for staff though, as they can allow escape of pressurised air from the mask - blowing COVID-19 in aerosol form into the room.
At today's WHO press conference, among other things they covered some of the points I've made above, which is why I've put this at the end.
"We’re pleased by the 20K healthworkers in the United Kingdom who have offered to return to work & that other countries such as Russia are involving medical students & trainees in the response" Head of WHO, DrTedros.
They spoke about masks, and said it is vital that healthcare workers have access to masks. Global shortages and massive demand are making this very hard in many places. Their advice for now is that unless you are a healthcare worker, only wear a mask if you have COVID-19 or if you are caring for someone who has COVID-19.
Dr Tedros stressed any country placing restrictions on the population has to take into account the people and how it will affect them.
"Governments need to ensure the welfare of people who have lost their income and are in desperate need of food, sanitation and other essential services"
The panel spoke about measures to push the virus down. Lockdowns suppress cases and buy us time to treat the patients we have, but we need to also locate and isolate infected people if we are to beat the virus.
Italy have been in the middle of a nightmare for about 3 weeks now, but their new cases have been dropping for almost a week and their restrictions are reducing new infections and admissions to hospital. They didn't achieve this by just staying home some of the time. I've spent a while talking to someone in Italy today, and here are her messages for us in the UK:
"I am on my 20th day of total lockdown and working from home, the situation is surreal but after the first 7/8 days of panic, disorientation and not thinking its true, with emotions doing a triple flip continually, you do settle down into a sort of acceptance"
"...no one is leaving the house unless for shopping or taking their dog for a walk for 200metres near home. There is no walking about for exercise allowed. We have police checks at the entry and exit of the town and have to carry a self certification with details as to why we are out of our homes."
"GP's surgeries are closed, you speak to your Doctor on the phone. If you need to see him he makes an appointment one to one, everyone is masked. Originally so many GP's were found to be positive and nobody knows how many patients they infected."
"It was the same in Italy in the beginning they said no masks needed for the same reason, now they are being delivered and if you want to shop for food, which is the only reason you should be out and other necessities such as medicines etc. then you have to be masked."
"Here if the symptoms are definite they are tested at home, family members and contacts in enforced isolation, as symptoms appear they are tested. Once there are breathing difficulties they are taken to hospital where if they improve with initial treatment they are sent back home again. The local health authority track daily their progress. If anyone who has been put in quarantine, breaks it and pops to the shop and is caught they are in serious trouble it goes on their criminal record and they are fined, with possible imprisonment if they are found to have infected people and someone dies as a consequence."
"I have many Doctor friends, one in particular is a consultant in one of the Covid-19 assigned hospitals. He told me 2 weeks ago that they have found positive results in patients up to 25 days after first symptoms. In Italy you have to have 3 negative tests before being considered out of quarantine."
"Italy should have been an example to all, with its errors considered right in the beginning, there is and was no excuse in repeating them. Our health system is superior to many in Europe and the north is crippled. But we are responding and bouncing back."
"The fear is when quarantine is slowly lifted, then I think we will see another peak."
Some numbers. They all represent human beings somewhere around our world:
Italy 101,739 (+4,050) 11,591 (+812)
Spain 85,195 (+5,085) 7,340 (+537)
China 81,470 (+31) 3,304 (+4)
Germany 63,929 (+1,494) 560 (+19)
Iran 41,495 (+3,186) 2,757 (+117)
France 44,550 (+4,376) 3,024 (+418)
UK 22,141 (+2,619) 1,408 (+180)
Australia 4,245 (+82) 18 (+1)
Sweden 4,028 (+328) 146 (+36)
Czechia 2,942 (+125) 23 (+7)
Malaysia 2,626 (+156) 37 (+2)
Russia 1,836 (+302) 9 (+1)
India 1,071 (+47) 29 (+2)
Qatar 693 (+59) 1
Morocco 516 (+37) 29 (+3)
Bahrain 515 (+16) 4
Lithuania 491 (+31) 7
Armenia 482 (+58) 3
Belarus 152 (+58)
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2020/mar/30/uk-coronavirus-live-rate-infection-lockdown-covid-19
https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/leicester-news/first-uk-doctor-die-coronavirus-3997445
https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-belarus-president-refuses-to-cancel-anything-and-says-vodka-and-saunas-will-ward-off-covid-19-11965396
https://www.dailysabah.com/world/europe/it-happens-belarus-becomes-only-country-not-taking-measures-against-covid-19
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2020/mar/30/uk-coronavirus-live-rate-infection-lockdown-covid-19
https://twitter.com/WilliamYang120/status/1244593482586443777?s=19
https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/new-york-city-builds-emergency-field-hospital-in-central-park/2349804/
https://twitter.com/SpillaneBrid/status/1244531496246968320?s=19
https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2020-03-30/orban-takes-sole-command-of-hungary-with-pandemic-emergency-law
https://twitter.com/BBCHughPym/status/1244649504458117122
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2020/mar/30/uk-coronavirus-live-rate-infection-lockdown-covid-19
It is interesting to see how the different parts of our country are doing different things to help and cope x
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