COVID-19 Coronavirus UK and World News weekend update 19th / 20th September 2020.

 COVID-19 Coronavirus UK and World News weekend update 19th / 20th September 2020.

The UK added 3,899 cases today (+4,422 yesterday) and now has reported a total of 394,257 positive cases of COVID-19. We completed 233,199 tests on Friday

1,081 people were in hospital on Thursday 17th, with 138 using a ventilator on Friday 18th. 

In the 24 hours up until 5pm yesterday, we officially reported the loss of another 18 people who have tested positive to COVID-19 within 28 days (+27 yesterday). We now very sadly have a total of 41,777 officially reported losses of life in all settings.

Rep. Of Ireland 32,933 (+395) cases and 1,792 losses of life.

There have now been a total of 31,113,280 reported cases worldwide. The number of people who have lost their lives worldwide to COVID-19 is 963,293. Already 22,713,152 people have recovered.

Exciting news - for me at least. I managed to get 2 of us tested. I went for a "last attempt" late on Friday night and was offered a walk-in appointment a far more reasonable distance away. It meant an 8am trip to Darwen - where they had a really a slick operation going, and were a really nice bunch. 5 minutes and we were back on the way home. No results as yet, but we're all doing okay anyway, which is really the important thing. 

The fact I was sent to Darwen, which has a far lower incidence of positive cases than my own local authority, does make me wonder just how much lack of local availability skews the figures... 

This is a biggie, and I don't see it making big news as yet, but it will do.
"From 28 September people will be required by law to self-isolate, those breaking the rules face fines starting at £1,000, increasing up to £10,000.
A £500 Test & Trace Support payment will be available for those on lower incomes who can't work from home."
This is a huge move to the English Government and probably indicates that in the next 10 days, they'll actually start clamping down. Supporting people on a lower income is fantastic news (although you do not have to be claiming benefits to be unable to manage if you lose 2 weeks pay).

Fines are hard, and don't only apply to the person self-isolating - pay attention to this bit:
"New fines for those breaching self-isolation rules will start at £1,000 – bringing this in line with the penalty for breaking quarantine after international travel - but could increase to up to £10,000 for repeat offences and for the most egregious breaches, including for those preventing others from self-isolating.
For example, this could include business owners who threaten self-isolating staff with redundancy if they do not come to work, sending a clear message that this will not be tolerated."
Quite obviously the government want to keep the economy open as much as possible, and allowing spread will just hamper that.
All of a sudden, they've grown up in their approach and started doing up their laces.... 

Officials are warning that if disruption to medical supplies caused by COVID19 continues for another 6 months, it could result in an additional 500,000 AIDS-related deaths in sub-Saharan Africa by the end of 2021. (Everyone should remember to take your usual medicines.) 

There was an anti-mask / anti-vaxx / anti-lockdown protest in London on Saturday. I am completely in favour of free speech, and by all reports the protestors weren't aggressive until after police got a bit heavy (and as they weren't wearing masks or distancing, were breaking the law, and it's your hospital that will be full, it was inevitable the police would at some point get heavy).
However, when I looked at the speaker's list, the first name was Dr Andrew Wakefield. He's no longer a medical doctor, he was struck off in 2010. I actually know lots about Andrew Wakefield, I've even written about him before. He subjected 12 (twelve) children to a barrage of medical tests which endangered the life of 1 of them, accepted £435,600 from lawyers opposing vaccines, and then announced a link between the MMR and autism. 5 of those children already had recorded developmental delays before they even had the MMR. Can you begin to imagine the peer-reviews on that study? It was scathing. Sadly the public don't always get to see the truth beyond the headlines, and in this case some still don't see it.
I love science, but that is not science. You promote a speaker of that low a calibre, your event is rubbished in my book. 

Trump of the Day:
Reporter: "How is it that you don't trust your own experts? Do you think you know better than they do?"
Mr D Trump: "Yeah, in many cases I do."
Head. Desk. Head. Desk. 

The press are reporting that "a source" says Boris is considering relaxing the UK's Rule of 6 for Christmas Day. Jeez guys, can you not have a little confidence in your own ability? Or you just planning on keeping levels lowish, but factoring Christmas into the equation?

It appears the London AstraZeneca vaccine candidate trial hasn't just been stopped once, it's been stopped twice. Both times because of female patients suffering neurological effects. That can range from severe headache through to paralysis or brain death. As the patients are expected to make a full recovery, it's somewhere in between. While studies have resumed in Britain, Brazil, India and South Africa, they're still on pause in the USA. Remember that a lot of people have had this vaccine - the Phase 3 trials need 40,000 volunteers and have been well underway for months. 

There really isn't a lot of COVID news about today, which frankly I'm relieved about. The UK are making the headlines everywhere, in that was are in a bit of a mess, and we are about to face further restrictions. London Mayor Sadiq Khan is one of several local leaders warning that lockdown and closures are likely.  We aren't alone. We followed Italy and France into our second wave, just as we did the first. Even if the wave is inevitable, what happens next is up to local leaders, governance, and us. 

India has crossed 5m cases, and the USA have lost over 200k people. But in good news, over 2/3 of reported cases have now officially recovered. The UK and Spain don't even report recovered cases, and it can take weeks for someone to get a negative test, or be released from hospital, plus it's the least important number a government will actually report, so we know this is a massive under-estimate. 23.5m as an official total is genuinely a really positive figure. 

Today I have ordered the countries by the highest number of new daily cases reported so far TODAY. The countries currently having the hardest time controlling the virus. Much of the other side of the world has yet to report, and some larger countries report state by state, so they may not have finished reporting yet today. Remember that ALL countries are testing more than was happening back in Spring, and finding more low or no symptom cases.
For reference, the UK has 1/20th the population of India, and around 1/5 the population of the USA. 

Some people, who would all enjoy closing their eyes and feeling a warm breeze on their face... 

Countries / Cases / Losses of life:

India 5,449,902 (+51,672) 87,312 (+538)

USA 6,984,414 (+17,011) 203,992 (+168)

Russia 1,103,399 (+6,148) 19,418 (+79) 

Mexico 694,121 (+5,167) 73,258 (+455)

Indonesia 244,676 (+3,989) 9,553 (+105)

UK 394,257 (+3,899) 41,777 (+18)

Iraq 319,035 (+3,438) 8,555 (+64)

Philippines 286,743 (+3,311) 4,984 (+55)

Brazil 4,531,539 (+3,192) 136,677 (+112)

Iran 422,140 (+3,097) 24,301 (+183)

Ukraine 175,678 (+2,966) 3,557 (+41)

Netherlands 93,778 (+1,844) 6,279 (+4)

Oman 93,475 (+1,722) 846 (+28)

Chile 446,274 (+1,600) 12,286 (+32)

Italy 298,156 (+1,587) 35,707 (+15)

Bangladesh 348,918 (+1,544) 4,939 (+26)

Turkey 302,867 (+1,519) 7,506 (+61)

Nepal 64,122 (+1,325) 411 (+10)

Romania 112,781 (+1,231) 4,435 (+33)

Belgium 100,748 (+1,099) 9,944 (+7)

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Sources:

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-package-to-support-and-enforce-self-isolation

https://twitter.com/Marsha_Night/status/1307654261560483841?s=19

https://www.thebrickcastle.com/2013/09/andrew-wakefield-and-mmr.html

https://twitter.com/DHSCgovuk/status/1307665820932288512

https://twitter.com/ABCPolitics/status/1307041154488242176

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/boris-johnson-considering-lifting-rule-22712388

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/19/health/astrazeneca-vaccine-safety-blueprints.html

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/self-isolation-and-treatment/when-to-self-isolate-and-what-to-do/

https://twitter.com/UNAIDS/status/1305068705014050817