Unpleasant milestones today... we have over 200,000 cases of COVID-19 and have lost more than 30,000 people.
The UK added 6,111 cases today and now has reported a total of 201,101 positive cases of COVID-19. The UK has 13,615 people in hospital, down from 13,922 yesterday.
In the 24 hours up until 5pm yesterday, we lost another 649 people to COVID-19. We now sadly have lost 30,076 people who have tested positive for COVID-19 in all UK settings.
England 129,799 / 27,008
Northern Ireland 3,934 / 404
Scotland 12,709 / 1,620
Wales 10,764 / 1,044
Rep. Of Ireland have 22,248 cases and 1,375 losses of life.
Another big milestone no-one wanted to reach today, as over a quarter of a million people worldwide have now died from COVID-19, the total number is now 261,703. There have now been 3,780,522 reported cases worldwide. Much more encouragingly, over one and a quarter million people have already recovered - 1,275,536
Sooooo. Professor Neil Ferguson has quit after being caught breaking the lockdown, by receiving a lady visitor. Let me remind you this is the 3rd person to resign from an important role in our COVID-19 response for (being selfish and arrogant) breaking their own rules. Thank heavens we are better than they are.
Today at the UK Prime Minister's questions, Boris Johnson set a target of 200,000 virus tests per day by the end of May. We achieved the 100k tests a day target last Friday and Saturday, but we haven't since. Yesterday's total was 69,463.
He also said is was possible he will announce some relaxation of lockdown measures on Sunday.
Today's UK press conference was with Robert Jenrick, the Housing and Communities bloke. He asked us to buy a newspaper? Random. How about go anywhere local (online) and buy something to support your own local community.
Local Resilience have delivered tons of PPE and over 1m boxes of food to vulnerable people.
Vital local building work has to be done, infrastructure and construction is urged to go back to work wherever it's safe to do so. Adaptations might be needed going forward - more cycle lanes, wider pavements etc.
Dr Nikita Kanani of NHS England is the newbie. She has a special interest in Primary Care, and stressed the NHS is OPEN TO ALL, even over the Bank Holiday weekend. If you need medical care, ring and get help. You might see someone dressed in PPE, but imagine you're in a classic movie and it'll be fine. (She is very human, but she didn't say that bit.)
Prof Yvonne Doyle of Public Health England did the slides. We are losing less people to COVID-19, but that number is not yet close to being low enough to end lockdown. There's no point us stepping out and then within a month being back at home for weeks.
Public Health England are looking at other countries to see what measures work best for schools, regarding social distancing etc. All UK schools already have guidance for the small number of pupils who are in. Staff and parents need to feel secure and confident to send their children back (*nods in agreement*). It will be a planned, phased approach.
300 Mayors in Paris have sent a letter to the government to say they are not happy about the announcement primary school children will start to go back from May 11th. They don't feel there's enough time to get ready and organise social distancing.
1. That surveillance is strong, COVID19 cases are declining & transmission is controlled.
2.That health system capacities are in place to detect, isolate, test and treat every COVID19 case and trace every contact.
3. That outbreak risks are minimized in special settings like health facilities and nursing homes.
4. That preventive measures are in place in workplaces, schools and other places where it’s essential for people to go.
5. That importation risks can be managed.
6. That communities are fully educated, engaged and empowered to adjust to the “new norm.
According to the BBC 90% of the 250,000 parents who completed the Parentkind survey would not be happy to see their children back in school as soon as the lockdown eases. Full results are officially released tomorrow.
Heathrow Airport will introduce temperature screening of passengers, as well as other measures to protect people from COVID-19.
Airports and flights are one place where the differences between countries really stand out. People have been stunned at the UK's lack of checks for some time. While it's a bit of a joke coming in, because you are more likely to catch it in the UK than most other countries, it's definitely going to make people departing from the UK a little more welcome worldwide.
In other Heathrow news, the downturn in flights and international travel means they'll be unlikely to need that 3rd runway (which has caused so much of a fight) for around 10-15 years. Good news for the campaigners.
Donald Trump toured a mask factory yesterday. He wasn't wearing a mask, and some clever soul had "Live And Let Die" blaring over the speakers. They'd have been genius if that had been Green Day.
The Spanish government will declare a national state of mourning for the more than 25,000 people in the country who have died from COVID-19.
In another pre-print (not peer-reviewed) study, Scientists have identified a strain of the coronavirus with a mutated spike protein. It is a dominant strain and seems more contagious than early versions.
It has been theorised for some time that this was the case, as outbreaks, in Wuhan and Italy for example, vary quite clearly in speed and severity.
The new strain first appeared in Europe, followed by the East Coast of the USA, and has been the dominant strain worldwide since mid-March. It's a mutation we could have done without.
"The mutation Spike D614G is of urgent concern; after beginning to spread in Europe in early February, when introduced to new regions it repeatedly and rapidly becomes the dominant form. Also, we present evidence of recombination between locally circulating strains, indicative of multiple strain infections. These finding have important implications for SARS-CoV-2 transmission, pathogenesis and immune interventions."
There have been several mutations already noted, and by themselves they make very little difference to immunity or chances of a vaccine working. Eventually more and more add up, and the virus become too different for antibodies to recognise, and at that point you need a new vaccine. The flu vaccine is replaced every year because of mutations. It isn't yet known how long it will take before COVID-19 becomes unrecognisable, but obviously, the longer the better. It is expected to last at least a year - and you don't have to start from scratch each time you replace it.
Meanwhile, in another pre-print study from University College London’s (UCL) Genetics Institute, a genetic analysis of samples from over 7,500 people suggests that COVID-19 spread quickly around the world starting very late last year and is adapting to its human hosts. They found almost 200 recurrent genetic mutations were present, with a large variety in hardest hit countries.
There's a semi-hoax that most deaths from COVID-19 are due to thrombosis. As far as we know they are not, most are due to respiratory failure. COVID-19 has been found to make changes to the blood, and a significant number of people have succumbed to blood clots in the lungs, heart or brain, but it's not been given as the most common cause.
Drugmaker Gilead have said they are negotiating long-term licenses with generic drugmakers in India and Pakistan, to produce Remdesivir for developing countries. They also said they will provide technology to aid the production. Remdesivir appears to reduce recovery time by an average 4 days and has already received approval in Europe, the US and Japan.
German professional football is set to make a return mid May.
Banksy has been at it again. 'Painting For Saints' is on temporary display at University Hospital Southampton - and below.
Last night all 472 of New York City's subway stations closed for cleaning for the first overnight subway shutdown in at least 50 years.
South Korean baseball has resumed - without real life crowds. Some stadiums are filling seats with photos of fans so that it doesn't look so empty. Even so, they've more viewers than ever before as baseball fans around the world tuned in to watch a live match.
Some numbers, each of them represents a person very much like you:
Countries / Cases / Losses of life (some states yet to report):
USA 1,245,857 (+8,224) 73,145 (+874)
Spain 253,682 (+3,121) 25,857 (+244)
Italy 214,457 (+1,444) 29,684 (+369)
UK 201,101 (+6,111) 30,076 (+649)
France 170,551 not yet reported today 25,531
Germany 167,372 (+365) 6,993
Russia 165,929 (+10,559) 1,537 (+86)
Turkey 131,744 (+2,253) 3,584 (+64)
Brazil 116,299 (+1,584) 7,966 (+45)
Iran 101,650 (+1,680) 6,418 (+78)
China 82,883 (+2) 4,633
Canada 63,375 (+1,329) 4,223 (+180)
India 52,340 (+2,940) 1,768 (+75)
Peru 51,189 (not yet reported today) 1,444
Belgium 50,781 (+272) 8,339 (+323)
Netherlands 41,319 (+232) 5,204 (+36)
Saudi Arabia 31,938 (+1,687) 209 (+9)
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https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
https://twitter.com/BBCHughPym/status/1257994084637118464?s=19
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.29.069054v2
https://twitter.com/PeterKolchinsky/status/1257775615610179584?s=19
https://www.mylondon.news/news/west-london-news/london-coronavirus-heathrow-use-thermal-18208044.amp
https://www.airsideint.com/heathrow-not-likely-to-need-third-runway-for-up-to-15-years/
https://twitter.com/ianbremmer/status/1258007375962935296?s=09
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-evolution-idUSKBN22I1E3?taid=5eb2cc9ea025ed0001bc1ca7&utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/coronavirus-updates-uk-death-toll-covid-19-highest/story?id=70528037&cid=social_twitter_abcn
https://www.livemint.com/news/india/gilead-says-in-talks-with-india-for-making-covid-19-drug-remdesivir-11588740569409.html
https://twitter.com/i/events/1257544708898734080
https://www.boomlive.in/fake-news/is-thrombosis-the-leading-cause-of-covid-19-deaths-a-factcheck-7977
https://www.euronews.com/2020/05/06/coronavirus-french-mayors-criticise-government-decision-to-reopen-primary-schools
https://www.instagram.com/p/B_2o3A5JJ3O/
A more of a positive update. I think our first minister is announcing some information today. I am not ready for lockdown to end yet. Or things to go back to normal. I think it gets harder the longer we are in to leave, but easier to stay in. Thank you xx
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