COVID-19 Coronavirus UK and World News Weekend Update October 25th 2020.
The UK added 19,790 cases today and now has reported a total of 873,800 positive cases of COVID-19.
In the 24 hours up until 5pm yesterday, we officially reported the loss of another 151 people who have tested positive to COVID-19 within 28 days. We now very sadly have a total of 44,896 officially reported losses of life in all settings.
Rep. Of Ireland 57,128 (+1,020) cases and 1,882 losses of life.
There have now been a total of 43,240,281 reported cases worldwide. The number of people who have lost their lives worldwide to COVID-19 is 1,157,517. Already 31,814,848 people have recovered.
"We are not going to control the pandemic. We are going to control the fact that we get vaccines, therapeutics and other mitigation areas."
White House Chief Of Staff Mark Meadows, admitting what we can all already see with our own eyes. .
Sky News are reporting that English ministers are considering discussing reducing the self-isolation period for people who've come into contact with someone who has COVID. Apparently they're concerned about public compliance. Personally I think it's just another way to blame the public for test and trace failing. Everyone I know has isolated and been cautious when they've had to isolate...in fact, it only seems to be MP's and their bessies who still think they're allowed to jolly around the UK for fun.
Scotland have announced their 5 COVID-19 Protection Levels. These will come into action from November 2nd. This is just a rough list compiled from about 6 huge pages, please check the appropriate gov dot scot web pages before you arrange anything:
LEVEL 0
Socialising - 8 people from 3 households max indoors (in-home socialising permitted),
15 from 5 outdoors
Hospitality (food and drink) - open, time restrictions may apply
Travel - no non-essential travel to/from level 3 or higher areas in Scotland and equivalents in the rest of the UK
Indoor events – seated and ambulatory permitted (restricted numbers)
Stadia / worship – open with restricted numbers
Life events 50 person limit
Colleges / Universities - blended learning
Leisure and entertainment - open with the exception of adult entertainment and nightclubs (unless permitted events)
Workplaces, offices, call centres - working from home wherever possible still advised.
LEVEL 1 - the same as Level 0 plus:
Socialising - reduced to 6/2 indoors or outdoors
Life events - reduced to 20 person limit
LEVEL 2 - the same as Level 1 plus:
Socialising - No in-home socialising
Mobile close contact services not permitted
Events - not permitted/closed except drive in events. Stadia closed to spectators
Leisure and entertainment - the following are closed: soft play, funfairs, indoor bowling, theatres, snooker/pool halls, music venues, casinos, bingo halls, nightclubs and adult entertainment
LEVEL 3 - the same as Level 2 plus:
Hospitality - alcohol on sale to drink outdoors / indoors not permitted (pubs shut). Food for consumption on premises) permitted – time restrictions may apply.
Accommodation - guidance encourages non-essential (leisure/tourism) use only by locals. Work use permitted.
Events / Leisure and entertainment - closed
LEVEL 4 - the same as Level 3 plus:
Hospitality - Closed. Takeaways permitted for alcohol and food as per existing arrangements.
Accommodation - essential only, for example work-related (no tourism).
Travel - no non-essential travel into or out of the level 4 area. If necessary, limits on travel distance, or a requirement to stay at home (exemptions for essential travel). Public transport essential purposes only.
Shopping / close contact services / public buildings (e.g. Libraries) - close all non-essential (click and collect retail permitted).
Workplaces - essential only / work from home
Schools remain open.
Welsh Deputy Minister Lee Waters has warned this is unlikely to be the only firebreak lockdown which occurs in Wales. Projections show it's to be expected another will be needed in January or February. (But you guys should at least get a relatively safe Christmas.) He's also said he will review the bar on sales of inessential items, because the lists can be a bit weird and random. The rules are designed to prevent small business going bust because they're closed while the supermarkets are open.
Word according to iNews is that UK ministers are discussing possible Tier 4 restrictions if the situation in England isn't improved by mid November. By my reckoning that's about a month late.
How many tiers will we end up with? They placed that Tier 3 bar way too low, so I'm going for 7. Remember Boris, positive news only remains positive until you have to admit defeat.
Trump has yet again declared that the only reason the USA have so many COVID cases is because they test so much, and India (for example) tests a tiny fraction of the number the USA do.
Okay....
The USA have done 132m tests, 398k tests for every million people.
The USA have lost over 230k people. 694 for every million.
India have done 102m tests, 74k tests for every million people.
India have lost 119k people. 86 for every million.
Russia have done 57m tests, 392k tests for every million people.
Russia have lost 26k people. 178 for every million.
The UK have done 31m tests, which is 458k tests per million people. We have officially lost 44k people. 658 for every million.
Xinjiang has reported 137 new coronavirus cases. This is the biggest outbreak in mainland China for several months. If previous experience is anything to go by, they'll have it locked down and mass-testing will be underway by tomorrow.
UK School Teachers - let me apologise now because this is bad news. On Friday the government changed the way they allocate Laptops and Tablets for remote working, and most people seem to be receiving around 1/4-1/2 of what they had previously been allocated, which wasn't enough in the first place. This clearly affects those children already at greatest disadvantage. The children who don't even have access to the Internet at home, and it's a very cruel move. It has also taken them a ridiculous amount of time to even do this. It should have been in hand months ago.
Just one example I've seen is a school who calculated they needed 40, were allocated 17 and that's been reduced to 3. It's only a matter of time before they bring back workhouses.
The Spanish government has declared a new State Of Emergency, which it's rumoured they are hoping will extend until April or May 2021. Crikey. (There really aren't many in the Northern hemisphere who have any confidence about this Winter.) Non-essential travel between areas is not allowed, and there is an 11pm to 6am curfew across the whole country. Gatherings are limited to 6. This WILL affect travel. For now at least, the Canary islands are exempt and not affected - in order to maintain tourism.
France have today reported over 52,000 cases of COVID. It's massive. I can't sugar coat that. They aren't doing well. Remember back in Spring when they were around 3 weeks ahead of us in their epidemic? It almost seems we are back to the start - but with far, far higher numbers of cases because we are all testing more.
New restrictions come into force across Italy from tomorrow. Bars, cafes and restaurants shut at 6pm, cinemas, gyms and pools are closed. The restrictions will be in place until at least November 24th.
I can't remember if I mentioned it before, but Wired looked into how easy it is to catch Covid-19 from fomites - surfaces. We know that under ideal lab conditions COVID can survive for a long time, but what are your actual chances of catching it from touching something? They looked at all of the data and concluded the good news was that it was incredibly low, and virtually nothing if you simply WASH YOUR HANDS...(and don't touch your face, pick your nose or chew your nails...).
Trump of the Day:
"That's all I hear about now. Turn on TV, 'Covid, Covid, Covid Covid Covid.' A plane goes down, 500 people dead, they don't talk about it. 'Covid Covid Covid Covid.' By the way, on November 4th, you won't hear about it any more. Please don't go and vote, Covid!"
Yes, you read that right. Apparently if you're American and you don't vote for COVID, it'll be gone by November 4th. If only we had known it would be that easy...
Famous People With COVID:
2 of US Vice President Mike Pence's close Aides...
Both the AstraZeneca/Oxford and the US/Johnson & Johnson vaccine candidate trials were put on hold in the US after adverse events. The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) has reviewed the evidence and decided both trials are safe to continue. Pauses to clinical trials are a common event and with the number of people taking part in trials at the moment, it is inevitable some people would become ill coincidentally. We've actually done really well so far.
Whichever country you live in, wherever you are in the world, whatever your government are doing, or not doing, to protect you, you always have a large degree of free will. There are always behaviours you can adopt that will lower your chances of catching COVID, without ruining your life. Wash your hands before eating, and when you get home. Open the windows and let the fresh air in regularly. Avoid crowds and closed spaces. Wear a face covering. It's the same advice that was given to people in previous pandemics, and it works just as well today. And be glad this isn't the middle ages and the plague. Back then 'quarantine' was 40 days (the clue is in the name)...
Today I've ordered the numbers by the countries with the largest number of new cases YESTERDAY (these are today's figures and some of them won't have reported yet today, or not fully). These are the countries having the worst time at the moment. Spain don't report at weekends, but reported over 19,000 cases on Friday.
Every single number represents a real human being:
Countries / Cases / Losses of life (some states /provinces yet to report):
USA 8,858,046 (+30,114) 230,235 (+167)
India 7,909,049 (+45,157) 119,030 (+463)
France 1,138,507 (+52,010) 34,761 (+116)
Brazil 5,381,224 not yet reported today 156,926
UK 873,800 (+19,790) 44,896 (+151)
Italy 525,782 (+21,273) 37,338 (+128)
Belgium 305,409 (+17,709) 10,737 (+79)
Russia 1,513,877 (+16,710) 26,050 (+229)
Poland 253,688 (+11,742) 4,438 (+87)
Czechia 255,373 (+4,576) 2,167 (+90)
Argentina 1,081,336 not yet reported today 28,613
Germany 433,257 (+5,449) 10,130 (+19)
Colombia 1,007,711 not yet reported today 30,000
Netherlands 291,254 (+10,202) 7,046 (+27)
Ukraine 343,498 (+6,088) 6,391 (+102)
Mexico 886,800 (+6,025) 88,743 (+431)
Iran 568,896 (+6,191) 32,616 (+296)
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Sources
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/
"Trump claims that other countries have fewer coronavirus cases because they only test when "somebody comes into the hospital and throws up all over the floor." The ignorance is appalling." https://t.co/TpcKCmE8yF
https://t.co/1bh7x2RSTy
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/second-fire-break-wales-likely-19162353
https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/coronavirus-latest-plans-tier-4-restrictions-second-wave-736607
"WIRED goes in-depth on the risk of contracting COVID-19 from surfaces" https://twitter.com/i/events/1319626254396477441?s=09
https://www.euronews.com/2020/10/25/coronavirus-spain-prepares-to-declare-state-of-emergency-to-allow-regional-curfews
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/23/astrazeneca-resumes-us-covid-19-vaccine-trial-johnson-johnson.html
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/23/astrazeneca-resumes-us-covid-19-vaccine-trial-johnson-johnson.html
https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-quarantine-for-covid-19-contacts-could-be-cut-to-seven-days-12113874
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/world-news/bars-restaurants-must-shut-early-19163705
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