COVID-19 Coronavirus UK and World News update 31st August / 1st September 2020.
The UK added 1,295 cases today and now has reported a total of 337,168 positive cases of COVID-19. 764 people were in hospital last Thursday 27th August, with 60 using a ventilator on Friday 28th (no updated figures due to Bank Holiday long weekend).
In the 24 hours up until 5pm yesterday, we lost another 3 people who have tested positive to COVID-19 within 28 days. We now very sadly have a total of 41,504 officially reported losses of life in all settings.
From the beginning of the outbreak up until Wednesday 19th August 134,156 people have been admitted to UK hospitals with COVID-19.
Rep. Of Ireland 29,025 (+214) cases and 1,777 losses of life.
There have now been a total of 25,772,607 reported cases worldwide. The number of people who have lost their lives worldwide to COVID-19 is 857,348. Already 18,043,222 people have recovered.
“Accepting someone to die because of age is moral bankruptcy at its highest and we shouldn’t allow our society to behave this way. We should care for one another.” Dr Tedros, World Health Organisation
"Everybody is going to catch this thing eventually." A Senior Whitehouse Representative letting us know the Trump administration plan there.
The ONS reported a higher than average UK mortality for the week ending August 14th. This is the first time it's been above average since the week ending 12th June, and the ONS say it appears to be due to heat, rather than a resurgence of COVID. The numbers of people dying at home continues to be above average - GO TO HOSPITAL if you are ill and need help.
"Of all deaths involving COVID-19 registered up to Week 33, 63.4% occurred in hospital with the remainder mainly occurring in care homes (29.6%), private homes (4.7%) and hospices (1.4%)."
Updated figures are late this week because of the bank holiday, and will be reported tomorrow.
Scotland is among the countries with a very high percentage of people dying from COVID in care homes. Since the start of the outbreak until 9th August:
- "46% of COVID-19 registered deaths related to deaths in care homes, 46% were in hospitals and 7% were at home or non-institutional settings."
- "2,494 people have died who have tested positive, and 4,222 deaths have been registered in Scotland where COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificate."
The UK COVID-19 Infection Survey didn't find evidence of "difference in COVID-19 infection rates between regions in England." They estimate that, from 14th to 20th August 2020, among the community (not care homes, hospitals etc):
- Around 28,200 people in England had COVID-19, equating to around 1 in every 1,900 individuals.
- Around 1,100 people in Wales had COVID-19, which is around 1 in 2,800 people.
- There were around 2,200 new cases per day in the community in England.
Scotland's children went back to school a couple of weeks ago, and (fingers very much crossed), so far it's going okay:
"On Friday 28 August 2020, provisional figures show that:
- there were 22,821 pupils absent either for all or part of the school day because of COVID-19 related reasons.
- the overall attendance rate at local authority primary, secondary and special schools was 84.5%.
- absence rate for COVID-19 related reasons was 3.2%, and for non COVID -19 related reasons was 12.3%."
The World Health Organisation are desperately trying to point out that the virus is ridiculously costly, and you can't have health OR economy, you need physical health to have healthy economy. While the virus persists, the economy won't flourish. They have laid out the most important factors for preventing spread as we currently know them to be:
1. Prevent amplifying events - mass gatherings, crowds, indoor events, superspreading potential.
2. Reduce deaths by protecting vulnerable groups - including older people, those with underlying conditions and essential workers.
3. Individual effort to prevent spread. Hand-washing, physical distancing and "respiratory etiquette".
4. Governments must "find, isolate, test and care."
Previous US presidential candidate Herman Cain repeatedly called COVID-19 a hoax, attended the Trump Tulsa rally, tested positive 10 days later, and sadly died on July 30th. His Twitter account has resumed tweeting, with a link to a post from the CDC, who have found 94% of people who succumb to Covid-19 have underlying health conditions (this includes diabetes, heart problems, high blood pressure, obesity etc.).
The accompanying, and horrifically bad taste, comment is "It looks like the virus is not as deadly as the mainstream media first made it out to be."... I think Herman himself might disagree...
English schools minister Nick Gibb was on Sky telly this morning explaining that schools won't automatically close if they have a case of COVID-19, it will depend on the level of contact they've had within school and if other students test positive. As with some of the factory and other potentially large scale outbreaks, mobile testing units may be deployed to the school.
The World Health Organisation don't only help the poorest countries, they help whoever needs it at the time. They are currently involved with a big project in Athens, Greece, to supply gloves, sanitiser, masks, accommodation, and most importantly information, to drug-users, street workers and migrants.
Luxury Cruise News:
AIDA Cruise Lines (owned by Carnival) have cancelled all cruises during September and October, and updated their listings for Winter 20/21.
Indian scientists have studied viral load and found that it can be higher in asymptomatic people than in those with symptoms. It's a bit of a surprise, despite a previous study which suggested asymptomatic children had very high levels of virus, and it's a blow to anyone thinking that more symptoms always means more infectious. It is more evidence that testing and isolating contacts is invaluable whenever an outbreak occurs.
Over 64 million meals were bought in the first 3 weeks of the UK's half price Eat Out To Help Out scheme. I hope it's genuinely helped a lot of places stay open.
Malaysia has barred entry to residents of India, Indonesia and The Philippines, because of their rising case numbers.
A Wuhan resident is attempting to sue the Chinese government for failing to be honest about Covid-19. She is unhappy the public at the epicentre of the outbreak didn't understand they were at risk, were told there wasn't person-to-person spread, and were allowed to behave normally at the beginning of January. By mid-January the explosion of cases exhausted health services, and when her father became ill, they couldn't get an ambulance. He died in the ER, not long after they managed to walk him/get a lift the 6 miles to hospital. The case is unlikely to get anywhere, and the woman's mother claims she's already been visited by police working on behalf of the Chinese government.
If you think that's a Chinese-specific problem, governments worldwide have sacked and disappeared (or thrown from windows) experts, medics and others who have spoken out.
China begin mass-testing in Hong Kong today. They hope to test at least 5m out of the 7m population in order to find hidden cases, but have recently imposed security laws which have fuelled all arguments between Hong Kong and mainland China. There is wide distrust and fear that DNA samples will be stored or used against people. So far just over 650,000 people have signed up to be tested.
Retired neuroradiologist (head x-ray and scan man) Scott Atlas is the new medical expert assisting Trump's Pandemic team. Maybe he can actually take an interest in how COVID-19 affects the brain...
Remember back at the beginning of the pandemic in Spring, when countries were frantically sending each other desperately needed medics and equipment. It has never stopped. Today an EU plane delivered half a million testing kits from Germany to Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia.
The UK's furlough scheme has started winding down, and from today the government will pay 70% of your wages, with your employer paying the remaining 10%+ to bring you up to 80% (or more if they are kind). I hope you aren't one of the people who will inevitably lose their employment at this point. My genuine commiserations to anyone who is now unemployed. Don't you dare give up. You've come a long way, and you've already proven you are stronger than you think.
Some people, all of them with likes and dislikes, hates and true loves:
Countries / Cases / Losses of life (some states /provinces yet to report):
USA 6,224,329 (+12,533) 188,019 (+283)
Brazil 3,919,452 (+8,551) 121,727 (+212)
India 3,758,705 (+70,766) 66,419 (+984)
Russia 1,000,048 (+4,729) 17,299 (+123)
Peru 652,037 not yet reported today 28,944
South Africa 627,041 not yet reported today 14,149
Colombia 615,168 not yet reported today 19,663
Mexico 599,560 (+3,719) 64,414 (+256)
Spain 462,858 not yet reported today 29,152
Argentina 417,735 not yet reported today 8,730
Chile 413,145 (+1,419) 11,321 (+32)
Iran 376,894 (+1,682) 21,672 (+101)
UK 337,168 (+1,295) 41,504 (+3)
Saudi Arabia 316,670 (+898) 3,929 (+32)
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Sources:
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/
https://twitter.com/azstudigital/status/1300332693951897601?s=19
https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/eat-out-help-out-ends-22605150
https://twitter.com/scotgov/status/1300477998186012673?s=19
https://www.who.int/news-room/feature-stories/detail/athens-protects-vulnerable-communities-during-covid-19
https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1300720049276280832?s=19
https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-this-wuhan-woman-is-suing-china-and-wants-an-apology-after-her-father-died-of-covid-19-12058695
Full WHO sitrep UP UNTIL AUGUST 31ST 2020 (pdf) : https://t.co/YjgEwCGKb3
https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1300460580604575744?s=19
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/deathsregisteredweeklyinenglandandwalesprovisional/weekending14august2020
https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-daily-data-for-scotland/
https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-daily-data-for-scotland/
https://twitter.com/JReinerMD/status/1300397149130313728?s=19
https://twitter.com/i/events/1300792048119734272
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-09-01/malaysia-bans-entry-of-indian-indonesian-philippine-citizens
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_20_1514
Here's hoping things calm down and back to school goes well for England xx
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