COVID-19 Coronavirus UK and World News update 25th June 2020.
The UK added 1,118 cases today and now has reported a total of 307,980 positive cases of COVID-19. We completed 167,023 tests yesterday.
In the 24 hours up until 5pm yesterday, we lost another 149 people who have tested positive to COVID-19. We now very sadly have an official confirmed total of 43,230 losses of life in all settings.
England 159,696 / 38,706
Northern Ireland 4,874 / 547
Scotland 15,802 (+5) / 2,480 (+2)
Wales 15,466 (+125) / 1,497 (+6)
Rep. Of Ireland 25,405 (+11) cases and 1,727 (+1) losses of life.
There have now been a total of 9,623,575 reported cases worldwide. The number of people who have lost their lives worldwide to COVID-19 is 487,353. Already 5,229,162 people have recovered.
"PLEASE stay away from crowded places - even outdoor ones. With a virus as infectious as COVID out there (and it is still out there) behaviour like this is highly dangerous and could so quickly send all our progress into reverse - with devastating consequences."
Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland's First Minister.
Bournemouth Beaches on the South coast were rammed full of people yesterday, and full of rubbish this morning. It is not only dangerous, it's disgusting. If you are the sort of person who thinks it's fine to leave behind all of your rubbish, or relieve yourself at the side of a beach hut, your parents let you down. The local council have practically begged people not to start visiting until the lockdown officially eases on July 4th, and everything is reopened. (And an update below.)
As of 2pm today 242,510 people in Scotland have been tested for coronavirus:
224,314 confirmed negative
18,196 positive
Excitingly, these figures from the Scottish Government don't match at all with the case number on the Gov dot UK website, unless Scotland managed to find another 2,488 people who tested positive in the few hours between announcement times. Sheesh...
The World Health Organisation have warned that parts of the world don't have enough oxygen concentrators to keep up with demand.
"80% of the market is owned by just a few companies, and demand is currently outstripping supply."
"WHO and our UN partners are working with manufacturers across the world through a variety of private sector networks to buy oxygen concentrators for countries that need them most. Ongoing talks with suppliers in recent weeks have enabled WHO to buy 14,000 oxygen concentrators, which will be sent to 120 countries in the coming weeks.WHO has identified a further 170K concentrators that can be available over the next 6 months, with a value of $100M. In addition, WHO has bought 9800 pulse oximeters, a simple device used to monitor oxygen in a patient’s blood, which are being prepared for shipment." Dr Tedros
When you consider that the World Health Organisation is shipping simple and essential medical equipment to 120 countries, you realise just how fortunate you are to live in the 4th richest economy.
10,000 residents and staff across over 100 care homes in England will be given regular coronavirus swab (PCR/do I have it?) tests and antibody tests as part of a new surveillance study. It's hoped that it will give us better insight into why COVID spreads so well through residential homes and how it enters, and it'll enable the NHS to react swiftly whenever an outbreak is discovered, hopefully before it spreads.
Sad news for fans of recreational cricket. Boris has obviously checked this one out with Patrick and Chris:
”The problem with cricket as everybody understands, that the ball is a natural vector of disease, potentially at any rate. We've been round it many times with our scientific friends.”
New York, New Jersey and Connecticut will quarantine arrivals from states with high numbers of cases. Can anyone blame them? New York has already been through hell, New Jersey came close and Connecticut has a smart governor.
The UK NHS Test and Trace 3rd week of operation 11th to 17th June:
• 6,129 people tested positive for Coronavirus (COVID-19) under pillars 1 and 2 in England.
• 6,923 people had their case transferred to the contact tracing system. {Includes some previous cases.)
• Of these, 4,869 people (70.3%) were reached and asked to provide details of recent close contacts. 3,633 people (74.6%) provided details for one or more recent close contacts and 1,236 people (25.4%) said that they had no recent close contacts.
• 1,791 people (25.9%) could not be reached. An additional 263 people (3.8%) could not be reached at all because no communications details were provided for them.
As a result of this, between 11 June and 17 June 2020:
• 30,286 people were identified as close contacts. Of these 24,734 people (81.7%) were reached and asked to self-isolate.
The USA is breaking records. Yesterday they reported a record total 36,358 new cases in one day, with record numbers in Florida, California and Oklahoma. Arizona has a new peak for hospitalisation. The previous single day record for new cases was 34,203 on April 25th.
Saudi Arabia asked everyone to put plans for the Hajj and Umrah pilgrimages on hold back in March, and do not feel it's yet safe. For the first time in modern history, they have announced that this year's Hajj (28 July – 2 August) will be very different. Only 1,000 pilgrims aged under 65 will be allowed to take part, and no pilgrims will be allowed from overseas.
Muslims aim to visit Mecca at least once in a lifetime, as part of their religion, and usually around 2.5m people take part annually.
“This decision is taken to ensure Hajj is performed in a safe manner from a public health perspective, while observing all preventative measures and the necessary social distancing protocols, to protect human beings from the risks associated with this pandemic and in accordance with the teachings of Islam in preserving the lives of human beings,” Ministry of Hajj and Umrah.
Trump of the day:
"The number of ChinaVirus cases goes up, because of GREAT TESTING, while the number of deaths (mortality rate), goes way down. The Fake News doesn’t like telling you that!"
Racist and a little optimistic, but well done on learning that testing people and finding cases is good. Sadly the accompanying rise in mortality rate will be a couple of weeks behind, so you have that to come... Also, the 'Fake News' has attempted to hammer this information into you for quite a while...
Bad news today for India. They've reported almost 17,000 cases in a single day. It really has been worrying from the start, and despite strict lockdowns and movement restrictions, it seems they may well be in big trouble.
Excellent news today from the World Health Organisation. The world's largest ongoing Ebola outbreak is officially OVER. The outbreak in Eastern Congo has claimed more than 2,280 lives over 2 years, but 2 x the incubation period has now elapsed without a new case.
Back in April, 3 days before that magic (2 x 21 =) 42 day period was up, a new case was discovered. Not this time.
There is a new small outbreak in Northern Democratic Republic of Congo (by 15th June the case count was 17 with 11 deaths, and over 2,500 people vaccinated), so Ebola isn't eradicated, but hopefully we are very close to it.
Ebola is also likely to have arrived with humans via bats. It's much harder to catch than COVID because it's spread between humans by body fluids and items contaminated by them, but it's far more deadly, killing around 50% or more of those who catch it. Fingers and toes crossed on that one.
So many people have turned up at Bournemouth and Sandbanks beaches today that the local council has had to declare a Major Incident to bring in reinforcements. COVID hasn't ended with the daily briefings, it's still out there folks.
We don't reopen most facilities, shops etc. until July 4th, and tourist area councils have to arrange for extra cleaning, bin emptying, parking attendants, policing and medical workers for any expected influx of people. They were not expecting this. A record 558 parking fines have been issued, and alcohol mixed with record-breaking temperatures has led to a lot of people being quite antagonistic with cleaning crews and locals, and other daytrippers....
If you've missed the Thursday clap for the NHS and other key workers, it's making a very special one-off comeback on the NHS' birthday at 5pm on 5th July. Set an alarm on your phone. It'll be 72 - lets hope it's still here in 72 years time for the generations that follow us. #ThankYouTogether.
Some people. All of them made from stars:
Countries / Cases / Losses of life (some states /provinces yet to report):
USA 2,478,904 (+16,350) 124,496 (+215)
Brazil 1,207,721 (+15,247) 54,434 (+560)
Russia 613,994 (+7,113) 8,605 (+92)
India 489,877 (+16,892) 15,303 (+396)
UK 307,980 (+1,118) 43,230 (+149)
Spain 294,166 not yet reported today 28,327
Peru 264,689 not yet reported today 8,586
Chile 259,064 (+4,648) 4,903 (+172)
Italy 239,706 (+296) 34,678 (+34)
Iran 215,096 (+2,595) 10,130 (+134)
Mexico 196,847 (+5,437) 24,324 (+947)
Germany 193,299 (+45) 9,004 (+1)
Pakistan 192,970 (+4,044) 3,903 (+148)
Turkey 191,657 not yet reported today 5,025
Saudi Arabia 170,639 (+3,372) 1,428 (+41)
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Sources:
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1276184906159271937
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1276184906159271937
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/health/coronavirus-cases-deaths-wales-lockdown-18487061
https://news.sky.com/story/major-incident-declared-in-bournemouth-as-thousands-of-people-flock-to-beaches-12014686
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/
https://twitter.com/NicolaSturgeon/status/1276182261768085511
https://twitter.com/DHSCgovuk/status/1276150709344501763
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/thousands-to-be-offered-repeat-testing-in-care-homes
https://www.iza.org/publications/dp/13319/face-masks-considerably-reduce-covid-19-cases-in-germany-a-synthetic-control-method-approach
https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/saudi-arabia-to-bar-arrivals-from-abroad-to-attend-the-haj/article31895381.ece
https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1275819235407794178
https://www.metro.news/only-1000-pilgrims-at-the-haj-say-saudis/2054355/
https://circleofcricket.com/category/World_Test_Championship/53741/eng-v-wi-2020-cricket-ball-a-natural-vector-of-disease-but-test-series-not-under-threat-british-pm
I have missed the clapping. It is good it is coming back to celebrate. So many countries are in such a sorry state. Let's hope it's not us after yesterday's sunbathing x
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