COVID-19 Coronavirus UK and World News update 8th/9th July 2020.
The UK added 642 cases today and now has reported a total of 287,621 positive cases of COVID-19. We completed 152,362 tests yesterday. 2,388 people were in hospital on 7th July, with 185 people using a ventilator on 8th July.
In the 24 hours up until 5pm yesterday, we reported the loss of another 85 people who have tested positive to COVID-19. We now very sadly have an official total of 44,602 reported losses of life in all settings.
Excitingly, these figures were updated differently on the 2 government websites. Let's hope they can decide which is correct.
England 247,609 / 40,018
Northern Ireland 4,894 / 554
Scotland 15,851 / 2,490
Wales 15,929 / 1,540
Rep. Of Ireland 25,542 cases and 1,738 losses of life. (Not yet reported today.)
There have now been a total of 12,275,294 reported cases worldwide. The number of people who have lost their lives worldwide to COVID-19 is 554,465. Already 7,142,533 people have recovered.
Rishi Sunak and the UK Treasury have confirmed a budget to reopen the economy with a bit of a bang. It includes:
- Over £15b purely for PPE
- VAT on hospitality and entertainment cut from 20% to 5% for 6 months
- During August from Monday to Wednesday, eat out at 50% cost with the Govt paying the remainder to restaurants (*limit £10pp, no alcohol).
- Temporary cut of stamp duty on all house purchases (first £500,000).
- If you bring back someone who was furloughed - and continuously employ them through to January we'll pay you (the employer) a Job Retention Bonus of £1,000 per person.
- As the crisis is easing, NHS Staff in England will soon have to pay parking fees again at work....
England briefing today with Oliver Dowden, Culture Secretary:
As of this weekend, 11th July, artists, musicians and dancers can perform outdoors to socially distanced audiences. Measures such as limiting capacity and electronic ticketing will be in place for contact tracing purposes.
They will be piloting specific indoor performances in a range of locations, to study the safety aspects, and effects of singing and playing of instruments such as brass and wind instruments. They're literally going to practise on real people. Awesome.
Beauticians, tattooists, spas, tanning salons and other close contact services can reopen from Monday 13th.
We are urged to get out there (and catch as much COVID as we can before Winter) and support the local business and places we all love.
Recreational cricket is back this weekend, local sports teams can start up from this weekend (as soon as they've published approved guidance), contact sports will follow.
Outdoor pools and water parks can reopen from this Saturday.
Indoor gyms, leisure centres, swimming pools and sports facilities can reopen from July 25th.
Facilities should enhance cleaning, used timed booking systems and other adaptations.
Local lockdowns will take place whenever necessary, as is happening in Leicester.
Public asked about the high street, very apt as Boots have announced large job losses in the last 24 hours, as have John Lewis.
They have the slogan "Eat out to help out" - referring to the half price meals Rishi announced. This means different things to different people, and is a very poor choice of slogan.
The Department of Health have announced a new pilot study to see how useful it is to test people without symptoms, who work in high-contact professions. Workers such as taxi drivers, cleaners and retail assistants, who all show disproportionately high levels of COVID-19 compared to the general population.
Scotland has made lots of announcements as it moves to Phase 3:
From Friday 10th July:
- Children can meet indoors without distancing
- 15 people can gather outdoors, with distancing
- 3 households can meet indoors, up to 8 people, including overnight stays
- Exceptions to the 2m rule will also be introduced
- Face coverings in shops will continue to be mandatory
- If you are travelling from any of the 39 countries the English govt. has rated green, you will not need to quarantine on arrival.
From Monday 13th July
- Contact sports for under 18's can return
- Shopping centres can reopen
- Dentists can reopen with limitations (no drilling etc)
From Wednesday 15th July
- Reopening hairdressers and barbershops
- Places of worship can reopen for communal prayer - NO SINGING ALLOWED
- Pubs, restaurants and holiday accommodation can open
From Wednesday 22nd July
- Reopening beauty salons and nail bars
Not before July 31st
- Adult contact sport
Wales has made an announcement:
- All pupils will return in September as long as schools can accommodate them.
Northern Ireland has news too - sports clubs and gyms can reopen from tomorrow.
On Tuesday Italy blocked all flights from Bangladesh after 36/275 passengers on a flight into Rome from Dhaka reportedly tested positive.
The Sydney Morning Herald has an opinion article with links to loads of studies supporting mask use. (Some models think mandatory mask use might reduce transmission by up to 85%, including dramatically reducing the risk to the wearer.) Infectious disease expert Raina MacIntyre has a great quote:
"There is more evidence supporting face mask use in the community than hand hygiene, including in randomised controlled trials which compare both interventions directly, so it is inconsistent to advocate hand hygiene as a sound principle but not masks."
Bruce Dart, Director of Tulsa County Health Department:
“The past two days we’ve had almost 500 cases, and we know we had several large events (cough *Trump Rally*) a little over two weeks ago, which is about right. So I guess we just connect the dots.”
The UK's random swab testing (have I got it right now?) ONS figures this week showed:
"While those who have symptoms are more likely to test positive than those without symptoms, out of those within our study who have ever tested positive for COVID-19, 33% reported any evidence of symptoms around the time of their positive swab test."
Yet again suggesting around 70% of people with COVID have no symptoms or incredibly mild symptoms (good), but therefore no way of knowing they're infected and possibly infectious (bad).
6 weeks since they first went into lockdown, Melbourne, Australia is back under restrictions. They have reported a faster rise in cases than they did with their first wave, and panic buying has restarted.
Public Health England (PHE) have published the latest week's surveillance data, which pulls together all of the 'have I got it right now?' from 29th June to 5th July 2020, and it's genuinely good news overall, as detected cases reduced by around 1/4:
"COVID-19 activity continued to decline or remain stable in England across the majority of surveillance indicators during week 27.
Around 75% of cases were detected through Pillar 2 (out of hospital testing).
Case detections, as per the previous week, are highest in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and Humber.
At a local authority level, activity remains highest in Leicester, though the weekly incidence of confirmed cases has declined.
Case detections are highest in adults aged 85 and over.
The overall number of acute respiratory infection incidents reported to PHE Health Protection Teams remained similar to the previous week. There have been declines in the number of care home and hospital incidents, the number of incidents in workplace settings remains relatively stable. The number of incidents in educational settings has increased from 43 in week 26 to 55 in week 27.
Since Pillar 2 testing became open to everyone during week 21, more outbreaks of mild disease have been detected in settings with healthy younger populations."
Trump of the yesterday:
"In Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and many other countries, SCHOOLS ARE OPEN WITH NO PROBLEMS. The Dems think it would be bad for them politically if U.S. schools open before the November Election, but is important for the children & families. May cut off funding if not open!"
(This reminds me of my 10 year old asking to stay up as late as his brother, who is 22, and threatening me he'll misbehave if I won't let him.)
17 minutes later...
"I disagree with CDCgov on their very tough & expensive guidelines for opening schools. While they want them open, they are asking schools to do very impractical things. I will be meeting with them!!!"
Donald, if you want pupils back in schools while covid levels are so high, it has it's own monetary cost...
Looser and less expensive guidelines will be along next week...
A paper published in 'Brain, A Journal Of Neurology' has studied the cases of 43 patients who had brain conditions as a result of covid. Five major categories emerged:
(i) encephalopathies (n = 10)
(ii) inflammatory CNS syndromes (n = 12)
(iii) ischaemic strokes (n = 8)
(iv) peripheral neurological disorders (n = 8, 7 of whom had Guillain-Barré syndrome)
(v) 5 patients with miscellaneous central disorders who did not fit these categories.
"The high incidence of acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, particularly with haemorrhagic change, is striking. This complication was not related to the severity of the respiratory COVID-19 disease. Early recognition, investigation and management of COVID-19-related neurological disease is challenging."
Basically, you can develop a brain condition from COVID-19 whether you have lung or other problems or not. Brain problems are far more rare than pneumonia and other symptoms or complications, but significant. They are going to be really tricky to spot.
If you've been advised to shield in England as you are clinically extremely vulnerable, don't forget to register for coronavirus support. The last boxes of basic supplies will be sent out by 31 July so registrations close on 17 July.
Sadly the free UK TV Licence for people over 75 is coming to an end. The government subsidise the BBC for the cost, and stopped paying the subsidy. earlier this year. People in receipt of pension Credit will continue to get a free licence.
The World Health Organisation has announced an independent review of the international response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response will be led by the former Prime Minister of New Zealand, Helen Clark, and former President of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
During PMQ's yesterday (with reference to the 20,000 people who died in UK care homes), Boris said "nobody knew about asymptomatic transmission".
Official Government approved SAGE minutes on 28th Jan said:
"There is limited evidence of asymptomatic transmission, but early indications imply some is occurring."
A long, long, long time before anything was done about it...
More than 500,000 cases of COVID19 have now been confirmed in Africa. Concerns are mounting over countries that have experienced sharp rises in cases – with numbers more than doubling in 22 countries over the past month.
Hillingdon hospital in north-west London had to close A&E on Tuesday, after several members of staff tested positive and all of their contacts were identified. Around 70 staff are now isolating.
Trump of the day:
Dr Anthony Fauci, the director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that the US was knee deep in the first wave. Trump's response:
"I think we are in a good place, I disagree with him."
Some people, all of whom would agree with Anthony Fauci...
Countries / Cases / Losses of life (some states /provinces yet to report):
USA 3,184,184 (+25,252) 135,274 (+412)
Brazil 1,727,279 (+11,083) 68,355 (+300)
India 794,196 (+25,144) 21,622 (+478)
Russia 707,301 (+6,509) 10,843 (+176)
Peru 312,911 not yet reported today 11,133
Chile 306,216 (+3,133) 6,682 (+109)
Spain 300,136 (+543) 28,401 (+5)
UK 287,621 (+642) 44,602 (+85)
Mexico 275,003 (+6,995) 32,796 (+782)
Iran 250,458 (+2,079) 12,305 (+221)
Italy 242,363 (+214) 34,926 (+12)
Pakistan 240,848 (+3,359) 4,983 (+61)
Bangladesh 175,494 (+3,360) 2,238 (+41)
Australia 9,059 (+173) 106
New Zealand 1,540 (+3) 22
Hong Kong 1,366 (+42) 7
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Sources
MASKS - https://www.smh.com.au/national/why-are-masks-not-yet-mandatory-in-australia-20200708-p55a4k.html
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/
https://twitter.com/krhignett/status/1280841234903445505?s=19
https://twitter.com/MarcusFysh/status/1280835207554371584?s=19
https://twitter.com/BathLabourParty/status/1280784124748402688?s=19
https://t.co/j4UnLpz1xs
https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/uk-england-london-53335584
https://youtu.be/AJYB_FUMbY0
https://twitter.com/BBCScotlandNews/status/1281190452067254272
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/899301/Weekly_COVID19_Surveillance_Report_week_28.pdf
https://www.statnews.com/2020/07/09/who-review-covid19-pandemic-response/
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/08/us/politics/coronavirus-tulsa-trump-rally.html
https://twitter.com/AdamJKucharski/status/1280949283013955584
It is not looking good working in the retail sector is it? I hope the indoor stuff like gyms and swimming opens here soon. I am avoiding wearing masks, so may never leave lol x
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