Coronavirus COVID-19 *Global Health Emergency* #14

[Inthedetails]

Regarding the family in NY who has tested positive - the son attends Yeshiva University in upper Manhattan, the dad is the lawyer who takes the commuter train to his office in Midtown, the daughter attends school in Riverdale, Bronx, the mom works with the dad at the law office, iirc - attend a synagogue in New Rochelle, NY. Here's more info:

"The Rabbi of Young Israel in New Rochelle — the synagogue at the center of a Westchester County outbreak — has tested positive for the coronavirus, according to a tweet early Friday by Yeshiva University.

Rabbi [redacted name*] teaches two undergraduate classes at the university’s Washington Heights campus..."

https://nypost.com/2020/03/06/rabbi-at-new-rochelle-coronavirus-synagogue-has-tested-positive/

We don't know yet where the first case originated, but this is definitely community spread here in NY.

* I'm not seeing the need to include names.

 

[JerseyGirl]

Semester at Sea to cut voyage short

The Semester at Sea study abroad program will end its spring semester early because of coronavirus fears, it said in a statement Thursday night.

About 550 students will go from Cape Town to the Canary Islands, and then to Amsterdam, where they will disembark April 12, the organization said. The MV World Odyssey had been scheduled to arrive there April 20. The students’ coursework was also accelerated, the statement said.

U.S. death toll rises to 14 — all but one fatality in Washington State

 

[enelram]

What were people thinking? Did they think that the quarantined cruise ship in Japan was an isolated event? Did the cruise ship owners think that they didn't need to clean ships because it wasn't a USA virus? What the heck are people thinking?

Could WHO Tedros be suggesting that maybe the USA needs to get its act in order? That is, regarding governments that aren't doing anything with the small window of time that is left? Maybe the WHO is referring to Nairobi or Ethiopia.

good post and agree-
Maybe it's time WHO stop tap dancing around
the obvious and be BLUNT.
Name the countries ignoring their duties.
Call'em out directly.
time to stop the social politeness.
We are all affected by this irresponsibility.
US is a joke, how they've mishandled this.
We have city leaders pleading for test kits.
Orlando, Fl. for one. 6 million tourists per month pass through and stay here at the theme parks. Disney World is totally MUM here.
WTH is wrong with this country of ours?

 

[mickey2942]

Costco's free food samples are being pulled from some of its stores as coronavirus worries grow

I wondered about this exact thing on Saturday when I was there, last week, stocking up on toilet paper, gloves, Clorox wipes, Lysol, and water.

 

[Amonet]

18/ Lombardy's welfare minister: "every day we get 200 new people to the ER in critical conditions, which means every day we need to find 200 more hospital beds. […] the virus is spreading at an exceptional speed, faster than our predictions and than the data we got from China." Luca Dellanna on Twitter

And this is another way to get a higher death count..have the hospitals overrun with serious and critical cases

I finally found some stats for UK ICU beds. This was from an article on the BBC news website.

4000 total ICU beds, of which.. I think it said that about 2/3rds or 3/4 would already be in use at this time of year?

Whatever the calculation was it left about 800 spare ICU beds. So if about 5% of diagnosed/confirmed cases require ICU, the country could theoretically cope with a maximum confirmed count of 800 beds x 20 = 16,000. Though I'm not 100% sure if that would be confirmed cases or hospitalised cases, or somewhere between the two.

So even if they can't contain the outbreak in any particular country, reducing the number who need hospitalisation at any one time is going to be a big factor on how this affects the overall death rate in that country, and that is going to be a factor in how we end up perceiving the outbreak, both during the outbreak and then when we look back on it in the future.

 

[JerseyGirl]

N.J. tells public schools to plan for closures, teleschooling if coronavirus outbreak worsens

New Jersey advised all public schools to plan for building closures during a potential coronavirus outbreak and announced the state will count “home instruction” days toward the required 180-day school year if districts are ordered to close by state or local health officials.

___

A private Jewish high school in Bergen County will be closed for several days after dozens of its students were potentially exposed to the coronavirus at a bat mitzvah in New York last month.

The Frisch School on West Century Road in Paramus will be closed until at least Wednesday.

N.J. private high school closes after fears students were exposed to coronavirus at N.Y. event

 

[Lilibet]

A little levity amidst the gloom...I happened upon these rather comic illustrations about sanitation on a Hong Kong government website and I thought everyone might enjoy them. They know how to get your attention!

https://www.chp.gov.hk/files/pdf/healthmessagesseries_2_en.pdf

https://www.chp.gov.hk/files/pdf/utrap_en.pdf

It’s a very informative website. The U.S. should publish something like this.
COVID-19 Thematic Website, Together, We Fight the Virus, Home

The reason I was researching Hong Kong is that a young 20-something friend will be traveling from Africa to Hong Kong to visit a friend before returning to Southern Oregon. I immediately researched to see if she would be in danger since her stepmom was pretty unconcerned. She is right, fortunately, although she joked (?) about self-quarantining when daughter returns. Here’s hoping things remain relatively stable in HK and the U.S. will let her return...and that she won’t bring it with her!

Hong Kong Travel Advisory

Latest Situation of Novel Coronavirus Infection in Hong Kong

Hong Kong Has Contained Coronavirus So Far — But At A Significant Cost

 

[gregjrichards]

Former Scottish government worker claims a coronavirus pandemic 'would be quite useful' in killing off NHS bed blockers in the wake of the first UK death

Doctor says pandemic would be 'quite useful' in killing off bed blockers | Daily Mail Online

Disgraceful comment to make she should be ashamed of herself.

 

[astheworldfallsdown]

Visitor restrictions ordered for nursing homes nationwide amid coronavirus fears

VISITING RESTRICTIONS HAVE been announced for nursing homes nationwide with no non-essential visiting, children or groups allowed, Nursing Homes Ireland has said.

 

[Amonet]

This is getting crazy. Every day, every minute, more disturbing news.

And this is just the beginning

As they say, this is a marathon, not a sprint. I think it's going to get worse before it gets better, and this might last for months...or as it spreads and peaks in different countries maybe even for the whole year

 

[gregjrichards]

French citizens are now being urged to avoid visiting their relatives in retirement homes to prevent exposing them to possible coronavirus infection.

"We must avoid visiting our elderly relatives as much as possible," President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday during a visit to a retirement home in Paris.

Coronavirus latest news: Macron tells French to avoid visiting elderly relatives as worldwide toll reaches 100,000

 

[Amonet]

Another thing about all this cleaning with alcohol is that alcohol is very flammable. Even before this outbreak there was an article about people using it so much that it was a fire risk.

If you're using alcohol cleansers in large quantities, be careful to not use it around naked flames.

 

[gregjrichards]

The UK government has promised £46m to fund urgent work to find a coronavirus vaccine and develop a rapid test for the disease.

This will include work on eight possible vaccines which are already in development as well as further research, the government said.

The funding will also support a lab in Bedford to develop a test that could provide results within 20 minutes.

But the test could still be six months away.

UK to spend £46m on coronavirus research

 

[mickey2942]

More and more I think that the world needs to realize that we all live on this tiny rock in space. We are not "Americans" and "Chinese" or "Muslims" "Christians", we are all humans, and what happens in Africa is going to affect people in the UK, vice versa.

Instead of the selfishness of thinking about health care for our citizens, we should all be thinking about health care for all humans. This virus may be a wakeup call.

 

[zecats]

good post and agree-
Maybe it's time WHO stop tap dancing around
the obvious and be BLUNT.
Name the countries ignoring their duties.
Call'em out directly.
time to stop the social politeness.
We are all affected by this irresponsibility.
US is a joke, how they've mishandled this.
We have city leaders pleading for test kits.
Orlando, Fl. for one. 6 million tourists per month pass through and stay here at the theme parks. Disney World is totally MUM here.
WTH is wrong with this country of ours?

It almost feels as if places like Disney (for one) are waiting for the tipping point. To close up places like the parks, to stop domestic travel, to cancel major money-making events, to isolate and prevent the public from spending would have a major impact in the pockets of the CEO's for sure. But it would do the same for the little guy as well. The little guy is the one I care about most.

I'm not advocating either way...I can just see both sides at the moment. And since numbers from our government are all over the place, how to position oneself on the validity of anything. FWIW, I'm on the side of health first. JMO

 

[enelram]

From the WHO recent press conference:

WHO has published step-by-step guidelines for countries to develop their national action plans according to eight key areas, which are supported by detailed, technical guidance.We call on all countries to accelerate those plans, ...
-------------------
Has anyone here seen these guidelines or seen
them being used in US?
I would like to see this and offer it to my state,
who desperately needs some guidance.
I'll go on WHO site and see if available.

 

[Lilibet]

More and more I think that the world needs to realize that we all live on this tiny rock in space. We are not "Americans" and "Chinese" or "Muslims" "Christians", we are all humans, and what happens in Africa is going to affect people in the UK, vice versa.

Instead of the selfishness of thinking about health care for our citizens, we should all be thinking about health care for all humans. This virus may be a wakeup call.

Post of the pandemic! Absolutely!

 

[zecats]

From the WHO recent press conference:

WHO has published step-by-step guidelines for countries to develop their national action plans according to eight key areas, which are supported by detailed, technical guidance.We call on all countries to accelerate those plans, ...
-------------------
Has anyone here seen these guidelines or seen
them being used in US?
I would like to see this and offer it to my state,
who desperately needs some guidance.
I'll go on WHO site and see if available.

Please tag me in any info you find. tia

 

[Amonet]

Hospital patient in his 80s is feared to be Britain's second coronavirus death as child at Alder Hey Hospital tests positive for killer infection

The unnamed patient is thought to have succumbed to the illness at Milton Keynes University Hospital in Buckinghamshire today.

Fellow patients and hospital staff on his ward have been isolated this morning and a deep clean has been carried out.

Hospital patient in his 80s is feared to be Britain's second coronavirus death | Daily Mail Online

This is the problem with older NHS hospitals they are mostly wards of at least 4-6 people. Being in a ward could be deadly with an infection like this. The newer hospitals have individual rooms but most hospitals were built in the 70s or 80s or older.

We had a new hospital built, I don't remember when it took over from the old hospital, maybe 10 to 15 years ago? I remember the layout of the old one better, and in that, even though a ward had 4 to 6 people on it, it was in a wing where each ward sits off a main 'corridor', and the nurses would have a station in the wing, and then visit/care for patients on one ward, then the next. So in that way it could easily have spread through an entire wing. Thank goodness there's more handwashing precautions between patients nowadays, and I am sure that those protocols will be even more adhered to while this outbreak is ongoing in order to try and reduce the chances of a doctor or nurse attending to one patient and then taking the virus to the next patient in the next room/ward.

When I went into the 'new' hospital in town for my gallbladder day surgery, that was a larger 'ward' with maybe 20 patients, who were each well-separated by about 2 metres and a curtain between them, but the nurses would go from patient over, to patient over there to do the obs on the patients who needed 30 minute obs.

I think that ideally, even the nurses on those wards would be issued better PPE and instructed to use sanitizer gel or handwashing between patients, where possible....obviously if a patient is in distress they have to run to that patient and help them regardless.

 

[mickey2942]

It almost feels as if places like Disney (for one) are waiting for the tipping point. To close up places like the parks, to stop domestic travel, to cancel major money-making events, to isolate and prevent the public from spending would have a major impact in the pockets of the CEO's for sure. But it would do the same for the little guy as well. The little guy is the one I care about most.

I'm not advocating either way...I can just see both sides at the moment. And since numbers from our government are all over the place, how to position oneself on the validity of anything. FWIW, I'm on the side of health first. JMO

There is a balance. I don't know the answer. What is the "tipping point"? Meanwhile, the band keeps playing on the cruise ships around the world.