Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #56

[tresir2012]

Pensioners 34 times more likely to die of Covid-19 than working age Brits, data shows

"As Britain edges back to work and employees consider the risks of moving beyond lockdown, official figures underscore that over-65s are 34 times more likely to die of coronavirus than working-age Britons.

About 12% of all deaths relating to Covid-19 have occurred among those under 65 – a total of 4,066 deaths. Most victims have been in the over-65 category, accounting for 30,978 fatalities.

There have been 8.4 deaths per 100,000 people among the under-65 category, which rises to 286 deaths per 100,000 in the over-65 group.

The contrast is even starker in data concerning those under 45. According to the Office for National Statistics figure, there have been just 401 deaths in this age group – one death for every 100,000 people, or around 1% of the overall death toll.

However, age is just one of the factors that will affect a person’s vulnerability to the virus. Research has shown that ethnicity, deprivation, pre-existing health conditions and occupation also contribute to an individual’s risk of dying."

Time for all of the UK to return to work?

 

[Trident]

Because the cancer hadn't killed them yet, and by all medical appearances the COVID-19 triggered an immune response that jacked up their cancer enough to kill them.

If the docs can actually tell when the COVID-19 didn't "prompt" the comorbidity into fatal mode, then they shouldn't count the ones that didn't. But for those who did have that happen, or when they can't distinguish, it makes sense (to me) to count those deaths as pandemic connected.

Same as when a torrential rainstorm comes through, and a person whose car gets swept away in high water dies of a heart attack while trying to swim to shore, gets counted as a death from the storm. It was an indirect death but triggered by the event, so counted as an impact of the event. Seems not just statistically accurate to me but also the respectful way to acknowledge that the event was the trigger, even if it operated indirectly.

IMO

I wonder if this "virus" has designed itself to seek out the weak spots in us all to attack. Some of my friends say it is morphing to kill of children and otherwise healthy adults. I'm not sure, but it certainly is interesting when a "virus" is smarter than the scientists.

 

[astheworldfallsdown]

Coronavirus: Welsh First Minister urges English not to travel to Wales this weekend

People from England wanting to travel to beauty spots in Wales this weekend will "find they are on the wrong side of the law", the first minister has warned.

Mark Drakeford said "now is not the right moment" for people from outside of Wales to cross the border, as he unveiled the country's new traffic light system to help ease the coronavirus lockdown.

He told Sky News: "My message to people in England is please visit Wales later.

"We are very keen to welcome people and always have been, but now is not the right moment.

"In Wales the law is that you can only travel locally. So people travelling long distances to come into Wales will find they are on the wrong side of the law."

He told a press conference in Cardiff that police officers along the border in North and West Wales have been forced to "educate and persuade" English motorists to go home every weekend since the start of the COVID-19 crisis.

 

[JerseyGirl]

Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York has issued a new executive order extending “New York State on PAUSE” to May 28. The statewide stay-at-home order, which also closed non-essential businesses and banned social gatherings, initially began in March and was scheduled to expire today.

“Both travel-related cases and community contact transmission of Covid-19 have been documented in New York State and are expected to continue,” Cuomo said in the order.

The new order also extends Cuomo’s emergency powers until June 13, “unless later extended or amended by a future Executive Order.”

Cuomo extends NY coronavirus shutdown to May 28 as some regions begin reopening

The governor says five regions – Central New York, North Country, Finger Lakes, Southern Tier and Mohawk Valley – can begin Phase One of reopening Friday.

The five remaining regions, which include Western New York, the Capital District and New York City, are all in the “red” with four or five benchmarks met as of Friday morning.

Coronavirus In New York: Gov. Andrew Cuomo Extends Stay-At-Home Order Until June 13 – CBS New York

___

“Phase one we’re talking about construction, manufacturing and select retail with curbside pick up,” Cuomo said.

Finance and professional services would be next, then restaurants and hotels, and entertainment and education are last.

“Remember density is not your friend here. Large gatherings are not your friend,” Cuomo said.

But first, regions have to meet a stringent set of requirements which includes

For a region to reopen, it must:

• According to CDC guidelines, a region has to have at least 14 days of decline in total hospitalizations and deaths on a three day rolling average
• Regions with few COVID-19 cases can not have 15 new cases or five deaths on a three day rolling average
• A region must have fewer than two new COVID-19 patients per 100,000 residents per day
• Hospitals can’t be filled to more than 70% capacity – including ICU beds – leaving 30% available in the event of a surge
• All hospitals must have a 90 day stockpile of PPE
• There must be 30 tests per 1,000 residents ready to go
• Regions must have 30 contact tracers for every 100,000 residents, with additional tracers available based on the projected number of cases in the region
• A risk/reward analysis of which businesses can reopen, with most essential businesses with lowest risk being prioritized
  • Phase 1: Construction, manufacturing and wholesale supply chain, select retail with curbside pickup
  • Phase 2: Professional services, finance and insurance, retail administrative support, real estate/rental leasing
  • Phase 3: Restaurants/food services, hotels and accommodations
  • Phase 4: Arts, entertainment, recreation, education
• Businesses must adjust their practices to ensure a safe work environment and track cases
• There will be a regional “control room” to monitor progress

 

[margarita25]

Colorado / 2 childcare centers, more grocery stores & food manufacturing operations:

COVID-19: New Outbreaks at Metro Denver Costco, King Soopers Stores

“The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment's latest update about outbreaksrelated to COVID-19 reveals 23 new sites, including two metro area stores: a Costco in Arapahoe County and a King Soopers in Denver.

Other locations added to the grim roster on May 13, when the latest information was made public, include the first two Colorado child-care centers to be designated as outbreaks, multiple food-manufacturing operations, and the state's corporate base for JBS, whose Greeley-based plant has clocked 316 positive cases of the novel coronavirus and six fatalities. Five positive staff cases and one death are tied to the local JBS offices.”

—-

COVID-19: Inside Metro Denver King Soopers, Costco Outbreak Sites

“While the CDPHE doesn't typically include addresses in outbreak studies, Westword learned the specific locations, and one is arguably the most iconic grocery store in Denver: the King Soopers at 1155 East Ninth Avenue. Eight positive novel coronavirus cases are linked to that site.

The Costco in question is at 1470 South Havana Street in Aurora; six positive coronavirus cases are tied to that outlet.”

—-

Colorado nears 1,100 coronavirus deaths as serious COVID-19 cases appear to be falling

“Colorado has recorded 1,091 deaths from the new coronavirus as the number of serious COVID-19 cases appears to be steadily falling, state health officials announced Thursday.”

 

[margarita25]

Georgia

CORONAVIRUS IN GEORGIA: More than 750 new cases confirmed in 24 hours

“As of Friday at 9 a.m., there were 36,544 confirmed cases. That's an increase of 751 new cases from Thursday morning.”

 

[scandinavian girl]

So I am back, I have been thinking a lot of what we said in January and early February and watched it unfold, we knew.

Sweden right now 3646 deaths and 29207 confirmed case

I got my new computer yesterday and everything is in the wrong place so I give up my effort to provide a link, it is in swedish anyway....

I am so happy to finally be here again.

 

[firebird]

Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York has issued a new executive order extending “New York State on PAUSE” to May 28. The statewide stay-at-home order, which also closed non-essential businesses and banned social gatherings, initially began in March and was scheduled to expire today.

“Both travel-related cases and community contact transmission of Covid-19 have been documented in New York State and are expected to continue,” Cuomo said in the order.

The new order also extends Cuomo’s emergency powers until June 13, “unless later extended or amended by a future Executive Order.”

Cuomo extends NY coronavirus shutdown to May 28 as some regions begin reopening

The governor says five regions – Central New York, North Country, Finger Lakes, Southern Tier and Mohawk Valley – can begin Phase One of reopening Friday.

The five remaining regions, which include Western New York, the Capital District and New York City, are all in the “red” with four or five benchmarks met as of Friday morning.

Coronavirus In New York: Gov. Andrew Cuomo Extends Stay-At-Home Order Until June 13 – CBS New York

___

“Phase one we’re talking about construction, manufacturing and select retail with curbside pick up,” Cuomo said.

Finance and professional services would be next, then restaurants and hotels, and entertainment and education are last.

“Remember density is not your friend here. Large gatherings are not your friend,” Cuomo said.

But first, regions have to meet a stringent set of requirements which includes

For a region to reopen, it must:

• According to CDC guidelines, a region has to have at least 14 days of decline in total hospitalizations and deaths on a three day rolling average
• Regions with few COVID-19 cases can not have 15 new cases or five deaths on a three day rolling average
• A region must have fewer than two new COVID-19 patients per 100,000 residents per day
• Hospitals can’t be filled to more than 70% capacity – including ICU beds – leaving 30% available in the event of a surge
• All hospitals must have a 90 day stockpile of PPE
• There must be 30 tests per 1,000 residents ready to go
• Regions must have 30 contact tracers for every 100,000 residents, with additional tracers available based on the projected number of cases in the region
• A risk/reward analysis of which businesses can reopen, with most essential businesses with lowest risk being prioritized
  • Phase 1: Construction, manufacturing and wholesale supply chain, select retail with curbside pickup
  • Phase 2: Professional services, finance and insurance, retail administrative support, real estate/rental leasing
  • Phase 3: Restaurants/food services, hotels and accommodations
  • Phase 4: Arts, entertainment, recreation, education
• Businesses must adjust their practices to ensure a safe work environment and track cases
• There will be a regional “control room” to monitor progress

ugh, bye NYC. The rest of us can spend the next 20 years paying for the "bailout." Insanity imo

 

[MimosaMornings]

Georgia

CORONAVIRUS IN GEORGIA: More than 750 new cases confirmed in 24 hours

“As of Friday at 9 a.m., there were 36,544 confirmed cases. That's an increase of 751 new cases from Thursday morning.”

 

[margarita25]

So I am back, I have been thinking a lot of what we said in January and early February and watched it unfold, we knew.

Sweden right now 3646 deaths and 29207 confirmed case

I got my new computer yesterday and everything is in the wrong place so I give up my effort to provide a link, it is in swedish anyway....

I am so happy to finally be here again.

Sweden Coronavirus: 29,207 Cases and 3,646 Deaths - Worldometer

 

[madamx]

CDC Issues Alert as Cases of NYC Kids With Severe COVID Syndrome Spike, Spread in US

 

[scandinavian girl]

Sweden Coronavirus: 29,207 Cases and 3,646 Deaths - Worldometer

Thank you, we can always count on you, I am happy to see you here

 

[margarita25]

Texas:

Two weeks after Gov. Abbott’s ‘reopening,’ Texas reports single-day high COVID deaths

“A single-day high of 58 Texans’ deaths from the coronavirus were confirmed on Thursday, two weeks after Gov. Greg Abbott’s reopening.

The state has reported 116 deaths over the past three days, the most in a three-day stretch during the pandemic.”

 

[firebird]

Cases, not deaths. The cases are going to continue to go up as testing continues. Plus, they're getting results of prior testing lumped together in a lot of cases. The higher the number of people who've had this without dying the better, imo.

 

[10ofRods]

With all the death caused by the pandemic, I am mostly concerned about children. Certainly not about my age group and older, we can make decisions to better protect ourselves if we choose (unless we are forced to work with co-morbidities, but that will be another post).

The MIS-C syndrome in children is worth keeping a close eye on, but as of yet, it is rare. 10ofRods has explained the CV- Kawasaki disease link very well in previous posts. I'll take notice when I see some statistics that the disease as related to COVID-19 is a relevant immediate and long-term risk to children. My threshold for that will be the average 150 pediatric deaths in the flu seasons 2016-2020. It would be disingenuous of me to get alarmed before that, since I never blinked an eye at the pediatric deaths related to the flu.

And I'll just put this out there- while the chances are exceptional remote that I uncover a childhood disease, I promise I won't name it after myself.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a health advisory to thousands of doctors across the country Thursday, advising them to be on the lookout for a troubling new syndrome that may be associated with Covid-19 infection.

The syndrome, called multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), has been seen in children across Europe and in at least 18 states, plus Washington, DC.

At first, the cases were believed to be Kawasaki disease, a rare, inflammatory condition that usually involves the major arteries and the heart. But there were too many cases for it to be Kawasaki, and the doctors agreed it was a different inflammatory syndrome. Many, but not all, of the children tested positive either for current Covid-19 infection, or a past infection.

It's only rarely fatal and most children recover, Burns said.

MIS-C: CDC warns doctors about childhood inflammatory syndrome linked to Covid-19 - CNN

History - Kawasaki Disease Research Center - UC San Diego Department of Pediatrics

These are really good points and helpful to me in sorting out my own views on reopening. The comparison to flu is especially cogent.

Basically, even as a person at risk, I am ready for more opening up. But, the way I'm thinking about it, I do have ways of protecting myself, including new behaviors that people are just going to have to chalk up to me being eccentric. I really don't want to get CoVid. At least not now, not until some of the newer treatments are available, which I reckon will be next year some time - so that's how long I intend to self-quarantine, with a couple of modifications to permit me to see my younger daughter/granddaughter. Even if we can't hug.

The thing is, here in SoCal, we're starting to see the usual unemployment related crime go down, on steroids this time. Home invasions are up, here in my neighborhood people are reporting on Nextdoor that there are at least two men wandering around impersonating SoCalGas meter readers (SoCalGas doesn't have meter readers in our area). These men are approaching women alone in their yards, gardening, or moms in the yard with kids. One neighbor found one of these guys in his backyard, and the guy then pretended to be a meter reader (they have SoCalGas shirts - but not the type currently worn by meter repair persons). In addition, there are some random door-to-door "salesmen" (not legal here), who are clearly not from our area and are simply casing and peering into people's homes. It's an older neighborhood, about half of us are over 60.

This is only going to get worse.

Thank you, @The Night Watchman for continuing this productive dialogue. I am actually looking forward to the next phase of this terrible pandemic. People who are going out in droves choose that for themselves. In California, it's disproportionately San Diego, Imperial and Orange Counties - all adjacent to each other, who are driving our case/mortality rate up, with Los Angeles County continuing to be a hard place to control the contagion. We still don't have a high mortality rate compared to the rest of the US. Restaurants still haven't opened in San Diego (I haven't seen @KALI recently, but my heart goes out to her), and the requirements for reopening are indeed pretty specific. It's a tense situation. I don't want any more people to lose jobs or go out of business.

I want a new normal where we can protect ourselves but not at the expense of the collapse of entire industries or communities. There's gotta be a way.

 

[10ofRods]

Barber who defied local orders (New York) to stay closed, tests positive for Coronavirus.

One in thirty people in Slovenia tests positive for active or past CV-19. This is especially interesting as it's a large scale random sample, with most respondents agreeing to be tested. Slovenia had only about 1500 known cases, so this research shows just how many people are asymptomatic in a population that's neither largely urban nor completely rural, and in a place where CoVid is not running rampant.

This means that in places with higher overall CV rates, the typical classroom teacher or person in private medical practice would meet about 1 CV+ per day (although some would not be actively contagious).

In other science news, it looks like some people who've had CV develop lower amounts of antibodies, and that the amount of antibody in their blood may decline over time. This may not be good news. OTOH, the immune system is complicated and I think there's general consensus that any amount of antibodies is a good thing for the human who has produced them.

Positive news:

There's a way to synthesize antibodies and my colleagues keep sending me little updates on that research. I think it's the most promising thing on the horizon, and to a lay person, will sound like and act like a vaccine, but isn't quite the same thing.

 

[nhmemorymaker]

I take combined Calcium and Vitamin D for same reason. Vitamin D contributes to absorbtion and utilisation of the calcium, it says on the bottle.

However they are not always the right combination to take. Based on having strong enough bones and high calcium in my system, I was instructed by docs to absolutely not take calcium, but increase my daily amount of Vitamin D.

"Perhaps the most important thing you can do is change how you think about calcium. High intake is not the surefire ticket to bone health that it has been made out to be." more in link.

What you need to know about calcium - Harvard Health

 

[dmac55]

From my view, in my state of Arizona, far too little education, direction, and guidance has been given about why masks and social distancing are important
That it has nothing to do with how sick or not you feel, or where you are or are not, that it's to protect not only yourself, but other people
That wearing masks is a show of care and concern about other people

And now to me, it's worse
Briefings from the government are full of all the places you can go and all the things you can do now
And barely a mention of the need for continued respiratory etiquette

Caveat:
I'm probably biased because I'm old

 

[nhmemorymaker]

I am just going to let Americans and Canadians read these if you don't mind

Ha! So just scrolled and rolled...for now! REally do want to read, so copied to an email for a leisurely read later. But in the scroll and roll there is obviously very interesting material (III. TENSION BETWEEN U.S. STATE AND FEDERAL GOVERNMENTS While police powers, and thus public health, have traditionally been within the purview of state governmental authority, tension still exists between the state and federal government.)
This will be addressed over and over for the next few years....

(Got to get back out to the gardens)

 

[24Roses]

Iowa numbers today: May 15: Iowa reports 18 additional COVID-19 deaths, 374 new cases (WATCH Gov. Reynolds)
374 new confirmed cases and 18 more have passed away. We now have a total of 14.049 confirmed cases and 336 have passed away; 6.561 have recovered.