Some sad milestones today. Over 1 million people have now tested positive for COVID-19 in the world, and over 50,000 people have lost their lives. The USA have become the first country to report over 200,000 cases and Spain are the 2nd country to lose over 10,000 people. A much better milestone is that over 200,000 people have now recovered from COVID-19.
The UK added 4,244 cases today and now has reported a total of 33,718 positive cases of COVID-19. We had in total tested 163,194 people as of 9am this morning.
As of 5pm yesterday, of those hospitalised in the UK, we have lost another 569 people to COVID-19. We now sadly have a total of 2,921 losses of life.
Total cases are: England 28,221, Scotland 2,602, Wales 2,121 and Northern Ireland 774. Already 135 of the UK's positive testing cases have recovered (it'll be more than that, they just aren't reporting them/testing people to see if they've recovered).
Rep. Of Ireland have 3,849 cases and 98 losses of life.
There have now been 1,001,958 reported cases worldwide. The number of people who have lost their lives worldwide to COVID-19 is now 51,432. Already 210,273 people have recovered.
Today's UK Press Briefing was with Matt Hancock the Health Secretary - all better and out of isolation jail.
He started by announcing he would write off £13.4bn of historic NHS debt. (Remind me again how the NHS can owe the Government money?)
He says they have fixed the issues with shortages of swabs and reagents. Hospital patients will continue to receive priority for testing, and critical NHS staff next, then all NHS staff.
The way they'll be able to test more people is due to a newly launched service for swab testing alongside other agencies (such as Boots) - again NHS staff will be first in line.
The antibody (did I have it?) tests are being made by 9 different companies and nearing completion. We will have ability to test 3500 people a week and will start sampling populations as soon as possible.
I'm impressed. No, I'm not. That was a joke. It's all wishes and promises, although the next one was at least more positive. By the end of the month they have set a target of 100k tests a day - this includes all tests.
Prof Stephen Powis of NHS England updated us on hospital admissions. London is under pressure and the midlands is also feeling the strain, but the overspill hospitals are not yet necessary. As of last night there were 1821 spare critical care beds in the NHS.
Prof John Newton, coordinator of the national testing effort reiterated what had been said. He explained to the press that the antibody (did I have it?) tests don't work until you've recovered and your body has created antibodies, so around a month after you were ill.
Press asked Matt Hancock how he managed to get a test. It's kind of obvious - he's Matt Hancock, Secretary of State. He answered well when asked about Premier League footballers being retained on full pay while other football ground staff were furloughed. He expressed disappointment. "We all have a part to play".
When asked if a second wave of infection is inevitable - we simply can't predict.
Tomorrow there will be news on additional Nightingale Hospitals in the UK
The UK will be 'clapping for carers' at 8pm every Thursday. NHS and other emergency workers have an awful time ahead and will be taking the most personal risk, so they get my biggest clap, but our world is turning because of lots of people. We have clean shops with food (and the money to buy it), power, communication, transport, childcare, empty bins, loo roll and lots more due to every single essential service worker who has to step outside their home, so that we can sit safer in ours. Thank you all.
The temporary hospital being set up at the SEC will be named the NHS Louisa Jordan - in honour of a Glasgow nursing sister who served and died in Serbia in WWI
Hong Kong will close all bars, restaurants and clubs selling alcohol for 14 days starting tomorrow at 6pm.
The first loss of life has occurred in one of the poorest areas of the world. Dharavi in Mumbai has a population of more than 1m people living within a 5km (3 miles) x 5km area. The patient has no travel history and fears are real that an outbreak could be utterly devastating. Hundreds of flats and shops have been sealed shut. Any possible contacts have their hands stamped and must quarantine for 2 weeks.
Anyone arriving in Taiwan by plane with a fever or respiratory symptoms will be taken to government quarantine until they receive a negative test, when they can return home to complete their mandatory 14 day home quarantine for all arrivals.
As well as the new Chinese laws prohibiting the sale of wild animals including bats and pangolin, Shenzen Province is the first to ban the eating of cats and dogs. (Remember 15% of the world's population think eating cow is disgusting, and even more than that can't believe anyone would eat pork - it's a world full of different people).
Japan have banned foreigners from 73 countries and will enforce a 14 day quarantine for any other new arrivals.
President Duterte of the Philippines has warned anyone causing a disturbance that they may be shot by police and military personnel if they put lives at risk, after a protest over food distribution turned violent.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced a $24 billion package, including free food rations for 800m disadvantaged people, cash transfers to 204m poor women & free cooking gas for 80m households for the next 3 months.
Construction of a temporary mortuary has begun on Wanstead Flats, Manor Park, East London. Local Authorities are having to make arrangements as part of their emergency planning procedure.
Yesterday more than 5 million aprons, 1 million FFP3 face masks, 6 million surgical masks and 21 million gloves were delivered to the NHS.
In total, over 45.5 million units of personal protective equipment (PPE) were delivered to 280 trusts and providers. No-one should ever feel obliged to work without the correct protective equipment.
The US Intelligence Agency has decided China has concealed the extent of their outbreak and the numbers of cases and losses of life might not be entirely true.
The USA have been very slow to catch on about pretty much everything concerning Coronavirus. According to Mr Trump it was still a hoax 3 weeks ago.
Latest research (not yet peer-reviewed) from South Korea, where they are mass testing hundreds of thousands of people, has found the mortality rate for symptomatic patients to be 1.4%.
An incredibly sad side effect of COVID-19, is that a 30 year effort to eradicate polio has had to be paused for the safety of all involved.
Famous People With COVID-19:
Broadway Actor Nick Cordero
Chuckle brother Paul Chuckle
Telly magician Dynamo, Steven Frayne
Opera singer Placido Domingo
Lost Their Fight:
Singer-songwriter and Fountains Of Wayne member Adam Schlesinger.
'Little & Large' comedian and presenter, Eddie Large.
Jazz Musician Ellis Marsalis Jr
Rwanda has extended it's lockdown until Sunday 19th April.
We have a new world leader to add to the list of disbelievers. Turkmenistan has banned the word “coronavirus,” and plain clothes police officers have arrested people for wearing face masks and discussing it in public.The President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has also offered remedies to combat the virus, from his own book on medicinal plants. 200 people have apparently already lost their lives to "something".
Wuhan in China was the epicentre of the initial outbreak and the residents are slowly (in groups) being allowed to return to life outside the home. Full lockdown officially ends 8th April after 11 weeks for some people. At the transport stations temperatures are taken and everyone has to use a QR authorisation code to show they're allowed to buy a ticket. Seats have been taped to show where you can sit on trams, with spaces between.
Today is International Children's Book Day. I'm passionate about children's literacy. Read with your kids, however old they are.
There are now more than 6,000 reported cases of COVID-19 in Africa.
At the moment our mortality rate is over 8% (1 in every 11-12 patients succumb). It looks really high, but it's not the truth. In the UK we only usually test you for COVID-19 if you get very poorly.
We aren't blanket testing, we aren't testing contacts or family, we aren't even testing people we are really sure have it - unless they end up in hospital.
Our high mortality rate honestly bears no relationship to the actual reality.
If we take 100 people with COVID-19, we can be pretty sure at least 30 people won't have any symptoms, and that number could be even higher. That leaves maximum 70 people.
Data from other countries shows around 80% of patients with symptoms don't need hospital treatment and will just have mild cold and flu symptoms at home, and this number could also be even higher. That is 56 of our people on the Lemsip and leaves just 14 who may end up in hospital - and be tested.
Most people who end up in hospital recover with a little simple oxygen and care, and they go home.
Data from China suggests around 1 in 7 people who go to hospital might end up with life-threatening problems. This means around 2 people of our original 100 are likely to become very seriously ill, and the outlook is not great, around 50/50. So 1 of those patients is likely to succumb.
This gives us a mortality rate of around 1% as long as everyone who needs it can get treatment. 1 out of every 100.
Stay at home, don't catch it, don't overload the NHS.
Here are some numbers. Each number represents a person who once thought their mother's eyes were the most beautiful thing in the world:
USA 235,972 (+20,969) 5,775 (+673)
Italy 115,242 (+4,668) 13,915 (+760)
Spain 110,238 (+6,120) 10,003 (+616)
Germany 83,459 (+5,478) 1,048 (+117)
China 81,589 (+35) 3,318 (+6)
France 59,105 (+2,116) 4,503 (+471)
Iran 50,468 (+2,875) 3,160 (+124)
UK 33,718 (+4,244) 2,921 (+569)
Switzerland 18,475 (+707) 522 (+34)
Turkey 18,135 (+2,456) 356 (+79)
Belgium 15,348 (+1,384) 1,011 (+183)
Netherlands 14,697 (+1,083) 1,339 (+166)
Austria 11,027 (+316) 158 (+12)
Canada 11,068 (+1,337) 134 (+20)
S. Korea 9,976 (+89) 169 (+4)
Portugal 9,034 (+783) 209 (+22)
Brazil 7,022 (+142) 252 (+10)
Israel 6,808 (+716) 34 (+8) 6,808
Sweden 5,466 (+519) 282 (+43)
Australia 5,137 (+89) 25 (+2)
Norway 5,119 (+242) 48 (+4)
Rep. Of Ireland 3,849 (+402) 98 (+13)
Czechia 3,805 (+216) 44 (+5)
Russia 3,548 (+771) 30 (+6)
Sources:
https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/03/31/824611607/turkmenistan-has-banned-use-of-the-word-coronavirus
https://t.co/4wdyYutrxy?amp=1
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
https://twitter.com/WilliamYang120/status/1245599628956852224?s=19
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.30.20048264v1
https://twitter.com/coopesdetat/status/1245479064040689664
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-japan/japan-on-the-brink-as-it-struggles-to-hold-back-coronavirus-idUSKBN21I3LX
https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2020/04/02/2005000/duterte-warns-groups-disrupting-quarantine
http://english.astroawani.com/malaysia-news/remdesivir-be-used-treatment-covid-19-health-dg-236504
https://t.co/jngRn2JSU1
https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2020-04-01/china-concealed-extent-of-virus-outbreak-u-s-intelligence-says
https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/national/18353080.former-raf-aircraft-hangar-used-temporary-mortuary/
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