COVID-19 Coronavirus UK and World News update 11th May 2020.
The UK added 3,877 cases today and now has reported a total of 223,060 positive cases of COVID-19. We completed 100,490 tests yesterday.
In the 24 hours up until 5pm yesterday, we lost another 210 people who have tested positive to COVID-19. We now very sadly have a total of 32,065 losses of life in all settings.
England 135,982 / 28,467
Northern Ireland 4,119 / 430
Scotland 13,486 / 1,847
Wales 11,344 / 1,111
Rep. Of Ireland 23,135 (+139) cases and 1,467 (+9) losses of life.
There have now been a total of 4,227,461 reported cases worldwide. The number of people who have lost their lives worldwide to COVID-19 is now 285,294. Already 1,512,701 people have recovered.
After Boris' message last night, media was full of photos of traffic jams in London and busy commuter trains first thing this morning. Once that lot were all clocked in at work, Dominic Raab went on the morning telly and radio, to make it clear that the return to work shouldn't happen until Wednesday. Shame Boris hadn't mentioned that minor detail. Massive oops.
I'm wasn't waiting until after 7pm for today's press conference, because, sheesh, how much UK Govt. news today?! But I accidentally did, so there are the only new points made below:
11,401 people are in hospital.
Public asked if we can see friends and family at the park? If we see them, should we say hello and leave? We shouldn't meet up with multiple people at once. We can arrange to meet 1 person, but not 2, 3 or many. We literally just don't want 1 person to accidentally infect an entire other household suddenly at once. If that happened to many people, we could suddenly have 600,000 cases and overwhelmed hospitals in 2 weeks time.
Step 2 aims to reopen Primary Schools for 1 month before the end of term.
The English government have indeed published a 50-page document detailing their strategy - and they ARE advising you wear face coverings!!
There's also a shortened, more user-friendly version giving major points. I'll add links to both below in the comments.
Social Distancing IS STILL IN PLACE and any leisure activity can only be carried out alone, with members of your household, or with one other person from outside your household, while keeping two metres apart at all times.
If you have symptoms of Coronavirus, you should isolate until you are well again, as before, isolating your household for 14 days until they've all caught it and got better too (or miraculously escaped it).
"...people should aim to wear a face-covering in enclosed spaces where social distancing is not always possible and they come into contact with others that they do not normally meet, for example on public transport or in some shops."
"Face-coverings are not intended to help the wearer, but to protect against inadvertent transmission of the disease to others if you have it asymptomatically."
They stress that surgical masks and respirators must continue to be reserved for those who need them. Face-coverings should not be used by children under 2, those who may find it difficult to manage them correctly, or those with respiratory conditions. It is important to use facecoverings properly and wash your hands before putting them on and taking them off. I'll add a link to their advice on 'making your own home made cloth face coverings' in the comments below! (There are no sew options).
From 13th May 2020 (Wednesday) in England:
For the foreseeable future, workers should continue to work from home rather than their normal physical workplace, wherever possible.
All workers who cannot work from home should travel to work if their workplace is open.
Food retailers and food markets, hardware stores, garden centres and certain other retailers can remain open.
Other businesses can remain open and their employees can travel to work, where they cannot work from home. Examples include food production, construction, manufacturing, logistics, distribution and scientific research in
laboratories.
Everybody (including critical workers) should continue to avoid public
transport wherever possible. Social distancing guidance on public transport must be followed rigorously.
Outdoor sports facilities can open.
Shielded people should remain at home and shielded (sorry guys, but we don't want you to come to any harm).
Vulnerable people should remain home if possible and be especially careful to avoid others when out.
You may leave the house for recreation (for fun, rather than just exercise).
You may drive to outdoor publicly accessible open spaces irrespective of distance.
All public gatherings of more than 2 people are prohibited, except in the workplace when necessary or when the people are members of the same household (or specific events such as moving home or funerals).
Remember Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales are not so casual about their rules, and you would be breaking the law to travel there for a picnic or a day out.
There will be higher fines in England for people who do not comply with guidelines:
"...if the police believe that you have broken the law – or if you refuse to follow their instructions enforcing the law – a police officer may issue you with a fixed penalty notice for £100 (reduced to £50 if paid within 14 days). If you have already received a fixed penalty notice, the amount will increase to £200 and double on each further repeat offence, up to a maximum of £3200."
Phase 2 is due to start on 1 June at the earliest, with some shops reopening, school for Reception, Year 1 and Year 6. Permitting cultural and sporting events to take place behind closed-doors for broadcast. Re-opening more local public transport in urban areas, subject to strict measures.
Phase 3 is due to start from 4 July at the earliest, with personal care (hairdressers etc), hospitality (pubs and restaurants etc), public spaces (churches etc) and leisure (cinemas etc) reconsidered for reopening.
Nigerians are having mixed feelings about the World Health Organisation being given permission to test COVID-19 vaccines there. They have a high volume of cases and their health infrastructure is already struggling, so some welcome the news, others worry that they are being used as the world's guinea pigs.
New York governor Andrew Cuomo has made twice weekly testing for COVID-19 mandatory for care home workers.
Bit of a backlash against the UK Government's new plan and accompanying ambiguous messaging - obviously I won't cover it all, but:
There's a Change dot org petition asking that parents be allowed to keep children home from school if they aren't happy - it had 435,000 signatures last I looked.
The North West has more cases in hospital now than any other area of England. Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham said earlier:
"The PM’s statement comes too soon for the North West and could cause confusion. My message to the people and businesses of Greater Manchester is this: please be cautious and take time before making any changes to your routine."
Germany's R rate is over 1 for the second day in a row. The RKI (Robert Koch Institute) said that the coronavirus reproduction rate in Germany yesterday was 1.13, up from 1.1 the day before and .83 on Friday.
As Angela Merkel has repeatedly said, reducing restrictions puts you on very icy ground.
Famous People With COVID-19:
A valet for President Trump
Katie Miller, press secretary to US Vice President Mike Pence
The wife of Trump aide Stephen Miller
The Office for National Statistics have compared occupations for the 2,494 people aged 20 to 64 years who lost their lives to COVID-19 related causes in England and Wales, up to and including 20 April 2020.
Nearly two-thirds of these deaths were men (1,612 deaths/ 9.9 per 100,000), with 5.2 deaths per 100,000 females (882 deaths).
"Healthcare workers, including those with jobs such as doctors and nurses, were not found to have higher rates of death involving COVID-19 when compared with the rate among those whose death involved COVID-19 of the same age and sex in the general population."
"Men and women working in social care, a group including care workers and home carers, both had significantly raised rates of death involving COVID-19". Male social care workers were more than twice as likely, and females just under twice as likely, to have COVID-19 as a cause of death.
Among men, a number of other specific occupations were found to have raised rates of death involving COVID-19, including: taxi drivers and chauffeurs, bus and coach drivers, chefs, and sales and retail assistants.
Luxury Cruise Crews News:
Around 70.000 crew members stuck moored off the USA are still waiting to go home, as well as tens of thousands of crew elsewhere. In the US they will (eventually) have to disembark and make their way to pre-booked charter flights, without using taxis or hired vehicles.
Wuhan in China reported it's first case in a month yesterday, and after testing contacts have reported 5 new confirmed cases, all from the same residential compound.
If we are ever to defeat this virus, we will need the ability to react quickly whenever it is found.
The UK's random swab testing to try and assess how many of the population are infected is probably not bringing the results they wanted. Swabs from 7,087 individual participants show an estimated 0.24% of the population in England, around 136,000 people,were currently infected with COVID-19 (95% confidence interval: 76,000 to 225,000). I'm going to take a guess they were hoping it would be substantially higher.
Seagulls in Rome are finding the lack of messy humans dropping food is leaving them hungry - they've started eating rats. Yummy. But handy.
Canada is giving their essential workers a pay rise. Some states have already implemented a rise of around $4 an hour and Justin Trudeau has announced $4b (Canadian) in funding.
Denmark are reducing restrictions further today, with the opening of shops, and physical distancing has been reduced from 2m (7ft) to 1m (3ft).
Primary schools are already open, older students return next week, and restaurants and cafes can open.
In June cinemas, museums and amusement parks plan to re-open.
Spain have started easing lockdown restrictions today, with around half the country moving to Phase 2 of their framework.
France started reducing restrictions today. Opening non-essential shops, factories and other businesses. People can also now leave the house without official authorisation. Schools are re-opening in a phased return.
The Faeroe Islands have declared themselves COVID-19- free. They have reported 187 cases and all patients have now recovered. Long may it stay that way.
Some people, very much like you, whatever their favourite song is:
Countries / cases /losses of life (some states yet to report today):
USA 1,373,706 (+6,068) 81,009 (+222)
Spain 268,143 (+3,480) 26,744 (+123)
UK 223,060 (+3,877) 32,065 (+210)
Russia 221,344 (+11,656) 2,009 (+94)
Italy 219,814 (+744) 30,739 (+179)
France 176,970 not yet reported today 26,380
Germany 171,999 (+120) 7,569
Brazil 163,510 (+811) 11,207 (+84)
Turkey 138,657 not yet reported today 3,786
Iran 109,286 (+1,683) 6,685 (+45)
China 82,918 (+17) 4,633
India 70,765 (+3,604) 2,294 (+82)
Canada 69,157 (+309) 4,907 (+37)
Malta 503 (+7) 5
Jamaica 502 (+4) 9
Taiwan 440 (+00) 7 (+1)
South Sudan 156 (+36)
Nepal 134 (+24)
UK government recovery strategy:
(easy read format)
(60 page document)
(The Law - the Coronavirus Regulations)
UK Government - "How to make a cloth face covering":
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/causesofdeath/bulletins/coronaviruscovid19relateddeathsbyoccupationenglandandwales/deathsregistereduptoandincluding20april2020
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-china-toll/chinas-wuhan-reports-first-coronavirus-cluster-since-lifting-lockdown-idUSKBN22N02F
https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-no-haircuts-pubs-or-restaurants-until-july-at-the-earliest-says-dominic-raab-11986330
https://twitter.com/FrancesOGrady/status/1259761822665760773
https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-no-haircuts-pubs-or-restaurants-until-july-at-the-earliest-says-dominic-raab-11986330
https://twitter.com/JeremyFarrar/status/1259606241766256657?s=19
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/seagulls-eat-rats-coronavirus-lockdown-a4430881.html
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-05-11/denmark-cuts-distancing-rule-in-major-step-to-end-lockdown
Yesterday seemed to be a very confusing day on the news front. Scotland seemed to have a clearer view. x
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