The UK added 3,539 cases today and now has reported a total of 361,677 positive cases of COVID-19. We completed 227,465 tests yesterday. 863 people were in hospital on Wednesday 9th, up 120 on that time last week. 78 patients were using a ventilator yesterday, up 2 from the previous week.
In the 24 hours up until 5pm yesterday, we officially reported the loss of another 6 people who have tested positive to COVID-19 within 28 days. We now very sadly have a total of 41,614 officially reported losses of life in all settings.
Rep. Of Ireland 30,360 cases and 1,781 losses of life. (Not yet reported today.)
There have now been a total of 28,497,524 reported cases worldwide. The number of people who have lost their lives worldwide to COVID-19 is 916,620. Already 20,462,599 people have recovered.
6 months ago today, on 11th March 2020, the World Health Organisation finally called the COVID situation a 'pandemic'. They had already, back on January 30th, declared their highest state of emergency - a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).
The R number in England and Wales is now officially above 1. No kidding! We all understand R numbers now, don't we? It's the Reproductive Rate.
If 3 cats have 1 kitten each, who in turn has 1 kitten, who has 1 kitten etc etc, you do have a slight increase in the number of cats initially, but only for a short while, and then it'll reach a plateau and never go above that. If 1 cat has extra kittens, the number will go up, and if all of the cats in each generation have 3 kittens, it'll get exponentially bigger. Likewise, If any 1 of the 3 cats doesn't have any kittens, the number of cats will begin to drop.
The number of cases is rising, so therefore the R rate in England and Wales has to be above 1 on average.
Official SAGE (government advisory group) figures put the current R rate at between 1.0 and 1.2, but the IPSOS MORI / Imperial College data says it is 1.7, with cases doubling every 7-8 days.
Sadly I know which one I personally trust the most...
The NHS COVID19 app. will be available nationally across England & Wales from 24th September. Bet you're excited... it'll be world-beating - we were promised.
The app. will allow you to 'check in' at participating venues, saving you the bother of writing down your contact details. Anyone with a venue can apply for their own QR code and posters from today.
Scotland launched their contact tracing app. 'Protect Scotland' yesterday. Already over 600,000 people have downloaded it.
Northern Ireland launched their 'StopCOVID NI' app. over a month ago.
Face coverings will be compulsory in shops in Wales from Monday. There are a lot of people asking why?, as Wales have a very low number of people seriously ill or succumbing to COVID at the moment. Well, it's to protect you from English visitors of course...
Birmingham, Sandwell and Solihull are the latest areas to have extra restrictions imposed. The rate of infection has more than doubled since last week (and those reported figures are a few days old). From Tuesday residents will not be able to mix socially with anyone who is not part of their household. This gives you only 4 nights to spread COVID as best you can - I imagine there'll be a lot of 'last night of freedom' gatherings occurring, which should ensure cases continue to rise for at least the next fortnight.
Scientists from the University of Colorado are warning that we need to take into account several factors when deciding if an indoor space can be considered COVID-safe regarding aerosols - floating microdroplets containing virus which we can inhale. You can't simply have a blanket rule. In a not-yet peer-reviewed study, they worked out a formula based on variables:
1.The number of people in the room breathing.
2. The range of viral particles that an infected person might breathe out.
3. Mask efficiency.
4. Volume of air in the room
5. How often the air in the room is exchanged (open windows, ventilation systems etc).
6. What activity the people were taking part in (e.g. sitting, walking, shouting etc).
They found that the variations can make some environments as much as 100 times as dangerous as others. Maybe just now isn't the time to go for an aerobic singalong class with all the windows shut, in crammed hall with a low ceiling.
England's hospital waiting lists are now at an all-time high, and average over 40 weeks wait. This is pretty disastrous for anyone living with pain or discomfort, or otherwise life-limiting conditions. I am genuinely sorry to you all. All millions of you...
A Spanish (not-yet peer-reviewed) study has found that Vitamin D supplements in hospitalised patients lowered the chances of them needing ventilation or succumbing to the virus. It has to be said though, that these patients were also given Hydroxychloroquine. I'm not the professional, but even I know that taking Hydroxychloroquine can (usually over a longer time) CAUSE Vitamin D deficiency by preventing absorption by the body. And as we are all well aware, Hydroxychloroquine has now (repeatedly) been proven to be of no benefit to COVID patients. It often pays to look beyond the headlines. Further studies are ongoing, because there is a lot of circumstantial evidence regarding the possibility that an adequate level of Vitamin D could be vital in fighting COVID.
There's been a lot of work done over the past few months on the effects of vitamins and minerals in fighting COVID-19. We know that being in a healthy position will help you fight the disease and lower your chance of needing ventilation or worse. Adequate levels of things like Vitamin D (the sunshine vitamin, also in margarine), B12 (milk, cheese, fortified cereals), Vitamin C (citrus fruits, broccoli, berries) and Magnesium (green leafy veg, nuts, seeds, wholegrain, fortified cereals) will help strengthen your immune system, and your body's response to COVID.
There isn't solid evidence yet to really support taking any extra vitamins or minerals. You just need a healthy amount. If you know you usually have a shortage, keep taking whatever your doctor has recommended. If you suspect a shortage or are concerned, speak to your GP. Overloading on many minerals and vitamins can poison you, so never try to super-boost levels of anything with high dose supplements - unless it's on personalised professional medical advice. Try to eat a healthy balanced diet, and ensure your loved ones do so too (especially those most at risk of serious illness). A bowl of cereal with a glass of fruit juice every morning REALLY can be the best start to the day.
Pigs can catch COVID - and create antibodies. Add them to the list... This has implications for farm workers worldwide, but previous studies show they are far less likely to catch COVID from a pig, than they are to give it to the pig. (Which makes logical sense - pigs faces are only about a foot from the ground. Human farmworkers on the other hand breathe all over their animals.)
Scientists in San Francisco have examined what SARS-Cov-2, the COVID-causing virus, does to lab-grown heart muscle, and it's not pretty. In their not-yet peer-reviewed study, they found:
"a distinct pattern of sarcomere fragmentation, with specific cleavage of thick filaments, and numerous iPSC-cardiomyocytes that lacked nuclear DNA."
The virus actually chops up the strands of muscle into little regular-sized cubes, and removes some of their DNA - turning them into useless cells with no purpose. It's a swine of a virus this. This heart-muscle is lab-grown, but if the same effect does occur in real live humans, it might help explain why some studies are finding effects on the heart in up to 50% of patients.
Before you panic, most of the people whose heart is affected won't even know unless they happen to have it investigated - but they will feel the benefit once it's recovered.
Mark Zuckerberg has said that he won't be removing posts purely because they are anti-vaccine. If a person has a bad experience, they are allowed to share that. I actually agree, we should have informed opinion at all times, and there are going to be some people, from the billions who are immunised each year, who have a bad experience. I'm very much pro any vaccine which will save lives and quality of life overall, especially when that benefit is immense, but we have to be honest and say very little is ever going to be 100% perfect.
It's Friday night, it's quiet party on the sofa at home time. Have an excellent weekend, back Sunday. Stay 2m apart, eat your greens, save the NHS.
Some people. They look like numbers, but they are all people:
Countries / Cases / Losses of life (some states /provinces yet to report):
USA 6,605,137 (+16,977) 196,747 (+420)
India 4,646,069 (+86,344) 77,356 (+1,052)
Brazil 4,251,455 (+11,692) 129,865 (+290)
Russia 1,051,874 (+5,504) 18,365 (+102)
Peru 710,067 not yet reported today 30,344
Colombia 694,664 not yet reported today 22,275
Mexico 652,364 (+4,857) 69,649 (+554)
South Africa 644,438 not yet reported today 15,265
Spain 554,143 not yet reported today 29,699
Argentina 524,198 not yet reported today 10,994 (+87)
Chile 430,535 (+1,860) 11,850 (+69)
Iran 397,801 (+2,313) 22,913 (+115)
UK 361,677 (+3,539) 41,614 (+6)
France 353,944 not yet reported today 30,813
Bangladesh 334,762 (+1,792) 4,668 (+34)
.
Sources:
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/
Vitamin D / B12 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7456194/
https://www.news-medical.net/health/Rheumatoid-Arthritis-and-Vitamin-D.aspx
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.10.288548v1
https://www.nutraingredients.com/Article/2020/04/28/Clear-link-between-vitamin-D-deficiency-and-severity-of-coronavirus-say-researchers
https://www.maturitas.org/article/S0378-5122(20)30348-0/fulltext
https://www.nutraingredients.com/Article/2020/05/22/COVID-19-Internet-rife-with-misinformation-about-Vitamin-D-say-scientists
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.09.20191676v1.full.pdf+html
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/sep/09/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-not-rightwing-echo-chamber
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.25.265561v1
https://gladstone.org/news/new-insights-how-covid-19-causes-heart-damage
https://www.livescience.com/coronavirus-may-dice-heart-muscle-fibers-cells.html
https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/covid-19-public-health-emergency-of-international-concern-(pheic)-global-research-and-innovation-forum
https://www.gov.uk/create-coronavirus-qr-poster
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mduBPk_pp-E
https://twitter.com/i/events/1304404673013530625
https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1304404266426290176
https://twitter.com/PaulBrandITV/status/1304396777400020995
https://twitter.com/NicolaSturgeon/status/1304166823605268487
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-54108648
R Rate
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/bulletins/coronaviruscovid19infectionsurveypilot/11september2020
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