COVID-19 Coronavirus UK and World News update 28th April 2020.

COVID-19 Coronavirus UK and World News update 28th April 2020.

The UK added 3,996 cases today and now has reported a total of 161,145 positive cases of COVID-19.

As of 5pm yesterday, of those hospitalised in the UK, we have lost another 586 people to COVID-19. We now sadly have a total of 21,678 losses of life in hospitals. (Losses of life in the community are reported by ONS on Tuesdays - see below.)

Total cases and losses reported are assumed to be:
England 137,504 / 19,204
Northern Ireland 3,408 / 329
Scotland 10,721 / 1,332
Wales 9,512 / 813
(The government haven't been reporting how many of the UK's positive testing cases have recovered.)

Rep. Of Ireland have 19,877 cases and 1,159 losses of life.

There have now been 3,105,224 reported cases worldwide. The number of people who have lost their lives worldwide to COVID-19 is now 214,372. Already 944,116 people have recovered.

At 11am this morning the UK held a minute's silence for all of the health and social care workers so far lost to COVID-19.

It's Tuesday, so the latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures have been released for England and Wales -  week ending 17 April 2020 (Week 16).  They include the losses of life in hospitals given by the government in the daily coronavirus totals, and also everyone who died outside hospital. They make grim, yet sadly not unexpected, reading:

The provisional number of deaths registered in week 16 was 22,351
This weekly total is 11,854 more than the five-year average.
8,758 deaths (39.2%) mentioned novel coronavirus (COVID-19)
In London, over half (55.5%) of deaths registered in Week 16 involved COVID-19. In the North West 42.3% and North East 41.1%

For the year up to Week 16 (April 17th) a total of 19,112 deaths involving COVID-19 had been registered in England and Wales.
77.4% (14,796 deaths) occurred in hospital
22.6% occurred in care homes (3,066), private homes (883) and hospices (190).

The ONS are trying to be completely transparent, so are working with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to bring us provisional numbers for Week 17 (Up to 24th April). They show that in the 2 week period 10 April to 24 April, CQC had been notified of a total of 4,343 deaths from COVID-19 in care home settings.


Today's UK briefing was led by Matt Hancock, Health Secretary.
He gave the figures and also the ONS figure of 4,343, and says from tomorrow losses of life in the community will be added to the daily total.
We have 3,260 spare critical care beds in UK hospitals. 15,796 people are in hospital with COVID-19.
We tested 43,453 people yesterday, we have 2 days to double that to meet the 100k a day target. (Unlikely, but we can see effort is being made.)
There are now 41 drive through centres. 25k a day home tests will be sent out. By Friday we will have 70 mobile testing units manned by service personnel. Daily capacity for testing is now at 73,400.
We will be rolling out testing of asymptomatic patients in care home, hospital and social care settings.
We are also rolling out testing to all over 65's with symptoms and their families, as well as people with symptoms who cannot work from home.

Prof Angela McLean, Deputy Chief Scientific Adviser, went through the slides. The new cases really is going down nicely. We have a sustained drop for 4 days, despite the increased amounts of people we are testing.

Questions from the public were disappointing as neither could have a definite answer.
Amanda from Hull asked if Grandparents can't be used for childcare, what arrangements will be made for full time childcare. Matt Hancock said it's still too early to open childcare.
Next question was, 'my son has Cystic Fibrosis and Autism, what is available for him regarding school?' Matt Hancock said if he is shielded, he should stay at home.

Press asked about face masks and coverings. Earlier today Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon asked people to wear a face mask if they are in enclosed places, including public transport and shops.
We were again told it makes minimal change. ( I think we can all see it's probably a matter of time.)

Press asked about the possibility of regional variations in restrictions. Matt and Angela answered, and they said there's actually not that much of a difference nationwide, even though London's peak went much higher. The curve down is fairly similar nationwide.

New Scientist asked about contact tracing. Surprisingly Prof John Newton, coordinator of the national testing effort let Matt Hancock answer: The government are employing 18,000 'contact tracers' and the app. will be live soon. This should all work together and be in place by mid-May. The more people who download the app. and keep bluetooth on, the better. If you've been in a lot of contact with someone who tests positive, you'll be able to quarantine, even if you don't yet have symptoms.

Donald Trump was back at the US press briefing and was asked if he accepted any responsibility for anyone misusing cleaning products:
"No, I don't know. I can't imagine. I can imagine that."
That's a no then. Glad he's cleared that up.

79% of deaths from COVID-19 in Canada have been in long-term care homes.

445 of Ireland's 1,159 laboratory confirmed deaths relate to nursing home residents.

All JetBlue airline passengers will need to wear face coverings from May 4th.

Vladimir Putin has announced an extension of Russia's stay-at-home order until May 12th.

There is a big article in The Lancet which discusses easing lockdown restrictions and some of the issues with herd immunity.
It mentions several problems:
We don't yet have a truly reliable antibody test
Home testing may be even less reliable
Allowing healthier, younger people to catch the virus freely can still result in pandemic spread and overwhelmed health care systems
There is no evidence antibodies ensure immunity
We don't know exactly what percentage would need antibodies in order to achieve herd immunity
(I'd add to that, we aren't sure how many people will suffer long term effects.)

China has sent 10,000 testing kits to Peru.

Germany is seeing a rise in cases barely days after beginning to loosen restrictions. Angela Merkel has repeatedly warned that they are on icy ground.

The UK are not the only country to have had serious problems with PPE. It has been an issue everywhere where there has been a major outbreak. Now German medics are sharing nude photos of themselves to highlight the fact they feel exposed without proper personal protective equipment. Images below (nah, I'm kidding).

Matt Hancock this morning unveiled The Skills Toolkit FREE online adult education courses to keep people busy and let them learn new skills while under furlough.

Donald Trump has claimed China is responsible for COVID-19 escaping into the world, and suggested he will be looking for recompense. A Germany paper ran a story suggesting Germany should ask for $165b reparations and when asked about it, Trump said:
 "We are talking about a lot more money than Germany's talking about."
"We haven't determined the final amount yet, it's very substantial."

The US has major problems with the food chain. They are losing a large number of meat packing workers, as COVID-19 is working it's way through factories. This has led to shortages of meat, and people worrying about catching COVID-19 from eating meat. It's all gone quite pear-shaped over there.

Prime Minister Édouard Philippe has revealed France's plan to ease the lockdown restriction,  starting on May 11 with the opening of shops and markets. People should wear face masks in public as much as possible.
All contacts of anyone found positive will be tested, and they aim to complete 700,000 tests a week.
Schools for ages 3-12 will reopen May 11, followed by pupils aged 12-16. and a decision on high schools (16-18) will be taken at the end of May.
All pupils 12+ must wear masks and smaller class sizes will operate.
Sports events are banned until September.
If new cases rise back above 3,000 a day, the lockdown will not be lifted.

Tired? Waking in the night? Bad dreams? No-one is getting any sleep. The entire world over, our nightmares are taking the same themes. No surprises we are dreaming about a safe place suddenly taken over, or being overcome ourselves, by bugs, parasites, witches, illness or something else.
We're dreaming we are among a crowd, without a mask, or that people are coughing on us.
It's not all nightmare though. We are also re-living what we used to consider mundane and everyday life - shopping, meeting friends and going out. 

Some people. Each one of them with dreams very much like yours:

USA  1,019,823 (+9,467) 57,601 (+804)
Spain 232,128 (+2,706) 23,822 (+301)
Italy 201,505 (+2,091) 27,359 (+382)
France 165,842 Not yet reported today 23,293
Germany 159,137 (+379) 6,174 (+48)
UK 161,145 (+3,996) 21,678 (+586)
Turkey 114,653 (+2,392) 2,992 (+92)
Russia 93,558 (+6,411) 867 (+73)
Iran 92,584 (+1,112) 5,877 (+71)
China 82,836 (+6) 4,633
Brazil 68,188 (+1,687) 4,674 (+131)
Canada 49,025 (+525) 2,766 (+59)
Belgium 47,334 (+647) 7,331 (+124)
Netherlands 38,416 (+171) 4,566 (+48)
Sweden 19,621 (+695) 2,355 (+81)
Greece 2,566 (+32) 138 (+2)
Oman 2,131 (+82) 10



Sources:

ONS Figures UK:
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/deathsregisteredweeklyinenglandandwalesprovisional/weekending17april2020

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/causesofdeath/articles/comparisonofweeklydeathoccurrencesinenglandandwales/uptoweekending17april2020


https://theskillstoolkit.campaign.gov.uk/
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-britain-scotland/scotlands-sturgeon-recommends-wearing-face-masks-in-enclosed-public-spaces-idUSKCN22A1Y8
https://news.sky.com/story/trump-im-not-responsible-for-people-misusing-disinfectant-11979755
https://twitter.com/AbigailBimman/status/1255167493334802434
https://www.france24.com/en/20200428-live-pm-philippe-unveils-france-s-plan-to-ease-covid-19-lockdown?ref=tw_i
https://ftalphaville.ft.com/2020/04/27/1587991832000/German-GPs-find-an-interesting-way-to-expose-their-lack-of-PPE-/
https://www.blankebedenken.org/
https://apnews.com/b7fb8585527db3a7f06563dce7982eff
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30985-5/fulltext
https://twitter.com/cntrentF24/status/1255128431798267905
https://twitter.com/TwitterMoments/status/1255140962155720707
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/live-blog/2020-04-28-coronavirus-news-n1194006/ncrd1194256#liveBlogHeader
https://andina.pe/ingles/noticia-peru-receives-10000-molecular-test-kits-donated-by-china-794864.aspx
https://www.afp.com/en/news/15/trump-says-us-may-seek-damages-china-over-virus-doc-1qu9pu2
https://www.thejournal.ie/covid-19-cases-in-ireland-5085690-Apr2020/?utm_source=twitter_short