The UK added 3,896 cases today and now has reported a total of 215,260 positive cases of COVID-19. We completed 96,878 tests yesterday. We have 11,809 people in hospital.
In the 24 hours up until 5pm yesterday, we lost another 346 people who have tested positive to COVID-19. We now very sadly have a total of 31,587 losses of life in all settings.
England 134,975 / 28,250
Northern Ireland 4,078 / 427
Scotland 13,305 / 1,811
Wales 11,121 / 1,099
Rep. Of Ireland 22,541 cases and 1,429 losses of life (not yet reported today).
There have now been over 4 million cases worldwide. The total reported cases is 4,057,900. The number of people who have lost their lives worldwide to COVID-19 is now 277,946. Already 1,414,731 people have recovered.
Today's UK briefing was with Grant Shapps, Minister For Transport, who talked about changes in order to maintain public transport for essential workers. In many parts of the network, we will only be able to have 1/10th of the passengers due to social distancing. When people start to return to work, we can't go back to how we were, we simply can't fit. And we can't all go in a car or it'll be horrific. More people will need to cycle or walk to work. Popularity of scooters will also increase (https://www.vulyplay.com/en-AU/scooters).
During the crisis, a lot of people have discovered the benefits of walking or cycling for exercise. It would be great if that could continue. There is a £2b package for cycle and walking in the UK. We will build pop-up bike lines, wider pavements, cycle lanes. Employees who want to cycle and don't have a bike can take advantage of the Bike To Work scheme, there will also be vouchers for bike maintenance, and bike fixing facilities around the country.
A trial of Electric Scooter rental schemes which was due to start next year will be brought forward and will take place in any local authority who wants to take part.
(Anyone else ever have a dream which involved Greta Thunberg, 12 monkeys and David Attenborough as an evil genius? Just me?).
Professor Jonathon Van Tam went through the slides. Transport use in the UK has gradually crept up since lockdown was imposed, especially all motor vehicles, but is still at around 50% at maximum of the previous rate.
Boris Johnson will make a statement on the structure for the UK's lockdown easing tomorrow. That does not mean he will make any changes, he is simply outlining our plans. Any sensible government will change those plans at the drop of a hat if it looks like conditions aren't right. We have to be able to pull everyone back if cases start to get out of control.
Australian students and landlords are fighting. Most students worldwide decided to return home to family as soon as universities closed (I've got one here myself), lockdowns took place, and now students are paying rent on property they may not even be able to get to, let alone need to live in. Some Australian students are claiming they aren't being allowed out of contracts, even if they've been repatriated to another country.
The Irish Department of Health has confirmed ten clusters of Covid-19 have been found in meat processing plants across Ireland, with a total of 566 people infected.
Virologist Peter Piot, director of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, has written a stark article in Science Mag about his own experience of COVID-19. He first became ill in mid-March, spent a week in hospital (plus a return day visit later on), and climbing a flight of stairs still leaves him breathless now.
He is genuinely concerned about the number of people who will be left with permanent health problems.
He has spent his lifetime fighting infectious diseases and is a COVID-19 adviser to the European Commission:
"Many people think COVID-19 kills 1% of patients, and the rest get away with some flulike symptoms. But the story gets more complicated. Many people will be left with chronic kidney and heart problems. Even their neural system is disrupted. There will be hundreds of thousands of people worldwide, possibly more, who will need treatments such as renal dialysis for the rest of their lives. The more we learn about the coronavirus, the more questions arise. We are learning while we are sailing."
"Let’s be clear: Without a coronavirus vaccine, we will never be able to live normally again."
According to the Guardian, from the end of May all arrivals to the UK will be quarantined for 14 days. Maybe by the time they're allowed out, it'll be safe.
Hahaha. That's me laughing at us bringing in a quarantine now, when we let tens of thousands of people come back from Italy with no restrictions, for about 2 weeks after we found out they had a massive explosion of cases.
Making a vaccine is our big goal, but it's only the first step. The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) estimates that only 10% of health care facilities in the world’s poorest countries have a reliable electricity supply, while in some countries less than 5% of health centres have vaccine-qualified refrigerators.
Backed by the Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation, experts from the University of Birmingham and Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh are joining forces with non-profit, commercial and academic partners to begin investigating just how to distribute a potentially temperature-sensitive COVID-19 vaccine around the world.
There are now 40 new COVID-19 cases in South Korea linked to a single night out. Bars and clubs have been ordered to shut again.
A strange request here. I've known several people, male and female of various ages, who have had what seems to be/is definitely COVID-19, followed by a water infection. Anyone else?
A poll by BlackBox Research and Toluna asked 12,500 people across 23 countries to rate their country's response. 9 of the top 10 were Asian, and the other was New Zealand. Ahhh Jacinda.
Lost Their Fight:
Illusionist Roy Horn of Las Vegas favourites Siegfried and Roy.
Chinese head Xi Jinping has again said he’s concerned about the coronavirus situation in North Korea and offered them assistance. North Korea have repeatedly officially stated they have no cases of COVID-19.
Around half of the residents of Spain will move to Phase 1 of de-escalation from Monday. They can meet in groups of up to 10 and small business can re-open.
"Residents will be able to visit loved ones, attend funerals, go shopping without a prior appointment and have a drink at a street café."
Interestingly, different groups are allowed out at different times.
6am-10am Exercise
10am-12noon Seniors over 70 (plus accompanying people)
12noon-7pm Families with children
7pm-8pm Seniors over 70 (plus accompanying people)
8pm-11pm Exercise
Humans aren't the only creatures confused by coronavirus. There have been goats, ducks, wild boar, deer, bears, jaguar and others, all venturing closer to try and discover why the humans are behaving so oddly.
The town of Samsun in Turkey has provided the latest comedy video, after it was overrun by sheep from neighbouring hills.
We may have to get creative, in order to continue to do things we enjoy while COVID-19 is around. A restaurant in The Netherlands has put outside tables inside greenhouses, to see if it is a suitable (and warm enough) option. Best of all, the article I read calls them "small glass cabins".
More than 100 drones were used to create a light show in Philadelphia - thanking, and paying tribute to, first responders. Thank you from me too.
Some numbers. All of them the apple of their parents' eye...
Countries / cases / losses of life (some states are yet to report):
USA 1,327,320 (+5,535) 78,829 (+214)
Spain 262,783 (+2,666) 26,478 (+179)
Italy 218,268 (+1,083) 30,395 (+194)
UK 215,260 (+3,896) 31,587 (+346)
Russia 198,676 (+10,817) 1,827 (+104)
France 176,079 not yet reported today 26,230
Germany 170,876 (+288) 7,510
Brazil 147,261 (+1,369) 10,044 (+52)
Turkey 137,115 (+1,546) 3,739 (+50)
Iran 106,220 (+1,529) 6,589 (+48)
India 62,521 (+2,826) 2,089 (+104)
Belgium 52,596 (+585) 8,581 (+60)
Saudi Arabia 37,136 (+1,704) 239 (+10)
Mexico 31,522 (+1,906) 3,160 (+199)
Singapore 22,460 (+753) 20
Belarus 22,052 (+951) 126 (+5)
Qatar 21,331 (+1,130) 13 (+1)
Serbia 10,032 (+89) 213 (+4)
Dominican Republic 9,882 (+506) 385 (+5)
South Africa 9,420 (+525) 186 (+8)
Oman 3,224 (+112) 17 (+1)
Hungary 3,213 (+35) 405 (+13)
Armenia 3,175 (+146) 44 (+1)
Thailand 3,004 (+4) 56 (+1)
Greece 2,710 (+19) 151 (+1)
Iraq 2,679 (+76) 107 (+3)
.
Sources:
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/
https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/holiday-coronavirus-travellers-quarantine-arriving-uk-a9506016.html
https://twitter.com/BBCLBicker/status/1258989194497519616
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/07/coronavirus-china-vietnam-uae-top-list-as-citizens-rank-government-response.html
https://twitter.com/ABC/status/1258147287018156036?s=19
https://twitter.com/StephenMcDonell/status/1259033404705632257
https://twitter.com/ABC/status/1258539655009406976?s=19
https://twitter.com/ABC/status/1257815729736466433?s=19
Press release University of Birmingham.
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/05/finally-virus-got-me-scientist-who-fought-ebola-and-hiv-reflects-facing-death-covid-19#
https://amp.abc.net.au/article/12224442?__twitter_impression=true
https://english.elpais.com/society/2020-05-09/as-half-of-spain-moves-to-phase-1-of-coronavirus-deescalation-what-will-change.html
https://twitter.com/StephenMcDonell/status/1259033404705632257
https://www.rte.ie/news/coronavirus/2020/0509/1137416-coronavirus-ireland/
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