Corona please read very important

[Edwin]

In case it saves you making a trip into the "danger zone", here are some of the retailers and other businesses that have either already closed their premises across the UK, or will do so at the end of the trading day this evening...

John Lewis, Waterstones, Primark, Kurt Geiger, New Look, Zara, Topshop, Topman, Dorothy Perkins, Burton, Wallis, Miss Selfridge, Evans, Calvin Klein, Disney Store, HMV, Timpson, McDonalds, Nandos, The Body Shop, Harrods, Harvey Nichols, Michael Kors, Oasis, Lego, Abercrombie & Fitch, Monsoon, Liberty London, the British Heart Foundation, Clarks, Ikea, TK Maxx, Apple, Selfridges, Fenwick, Calvin Klein, Sweaty Betty, Boden, Oxfam, H&M Group, River Island, Gap, Reiss, Card Factory, Subway, Debenhams, The Works

 

[Edwin]

Yes that's the rubbish that's been spouted. If nobody had the virus because of wearing masks you would not have to change the mask every time you take it off. Medical staff naturally have more stringent rules because they are in close proximity to the sick. Not rocket science, no matter how it's spun. If masks reduce the risk of random transfer then they should have been mass produced and distributed at an early stage.

Masks have to be changed once they get damp, which happens with disposable ones after a few hours at most because people breathe into them (of course!). The moisture traps bacteria and (hopefully most of the) viruses, so you have to throw it away before it dries out again.

The mask does a reasonable job of stopping others' bacteria, viruses (and of course pollen - great for hayfever) but it does an even better job of stopping what you're breathing out from contaminating others if you yourself happen to be infected. Again, you don't want it to dry out and have all that nasty stuff going everywhere, no matter which side of the mask it's on. So bin it first.

In Japan, China and other places where people wear masks much more commonly than in the UK, people will wear them an absolute max of one day, but quite often only one journey (and put on a fresh one for the return at the end of the day). In normal times, masks will be sold in packs of 3, 5, 7 or more at very cheap prices in Japan. Probably about 50p-70p per mask in bulk. NOTE: These are not normal times, as I hope you'd expect. Masks are becoming scarce there, as everywhere else.

I should add that the Japanese government has stepped up the supply, and is securing the production of 600,000,000 disposable masks a month. Don't have the figures for the UK, but it will be a tiny, tiny fraction of that.

 

[newguy]

It's concerning if there is truth to this comment about thousands of people STILL coming to the UK from Italy, Iran and China (thousands per week possibly) with it not being reported on: https://www.reddit.com/r/unitedkingdom/comments/fnbfvz/flights_from_italy_iran_and_china_are_still/

flight example from today: https://www.heathrow.com/arrivals/terminal-4/flight-details/AZ206/23-03-2020


Maybe there are rare valid reasons to still be making these trips, but with the advice given to us all to basically stay at home, it doesn't seem right that so many more people with the virus may be winging their way here each and every day.

 

[LCHappy]

It's concerning if there is truth to this comment about thousands of people STILL coming to the UK from Italy, Iran and China (thousands per week possibly) with it not being reported on: https://www.reddit.com/r/unitedkingdom/comments/fnbfvz/flights_from_italy_iran_and_china_are_still/

Maybe there are rare valid reasons to still be making these trips, but with the advice given to us all to basically stay at home, it doesn't seem right that so many more people with the virus may be winging their way here each and every day.

Some of them will statistically require emergency treatment. For this alone they should be banned.

 

[newguy]

Some of them will statistically require emergency treatment. For this alone they should be banned.

Yes, I think it's very concerning for all manner of reasons

 

[diablo]

The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) says the coronavirus pandemic is "accelerating".

Speaking at a press briefing in Geneva, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: “It took 67 days from the first reported case to reach 100,000 cases, 11 days for the second 100,000 cases, and just four days for the third 100,000 cases.”

 

[Edwin]

Yesterdays figures weren't comparable to Italy, hopefully this means their figures won't be projected onto the UK.

Of the active cases shown here https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/uk/
There is apparently only 20 in the UK that are serious or critical, whereas in other countries it seems much worse, Italy has 3000

Is it reported differently in the UK compared to the rest of the world, or is the UK some way off 'the peak' ?

We are testing much, much fewer people than many other countries. That might explain some of the discrepancies? Also, we have not yet run out of ventilators (though some individual hospitals have). Maybe cases only become "critical" once they can't be allocated adequate hospital facilities? I don't know how Worldometers defines the term.

 

[Edwin]

Greggs is closing from tonight.

 

[bonusmedia]

Yesterdays figures weren't comparable to Italy, hopefully this means their figures won't be projected onto the UK.

Of the active cases shown here https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/uk/
There is apparently only 20 in the UK that are serious or critical, whereas in other countries it seems much worse, Italy has 3000

Is it reported differently in the UK compared to the rest of the world, or is the UK some way off 'the peak' ?

Worldometers must be incorrect or lack data. It's not possible we only have 20 critical cases at the current rate of deaths.
Maybe we're not reporting that number or they haven't got access to it

 

[diablo]

Yesterdays figures weren't comparable to Italy, hopefully this means their figures won't be projected onto the UK.

UK coronavirus death toll rose to 335 today, falling further behind the comparison projection, thankfully.

That's not to say figures couldn't go the other way in the future.

 

[bonusmedia]

It's concerning if there is truth to this comment about thousands of people STILL coming to the UK from Italy, Iran and China (thousands per week possibly) with it not being reported on: https://www.reddit.com/r/unitedkingdom/comments/fnbfvz/flights_from_italy_iran_and_china_are_still/

flight example from today: https://www.heathrow.com/arrivals/terminal-4/flight-details/AZ206/23-03-2020


Maybe there are rare valid reasons to still be making these trips, but with the advice given to us all to basically stay at home, it doesn't seem right that so many more people with the virus may be winging their way here each and every day.

If there are still 7000 passengers a week arriving, that's still way more than 99% reduction.
There have definitely been a lot of repatriation flights and you can't ban citizens from coming home.
I don't know about screening but I hope they did improve it.
That Reddit post is really 'a mate of a mate said' though so does need more evidence.

Obviously we don't want it coming in through ports but it's already widespread in the population here.
Statistically, for most countries, people arriving here now are more likely to catch it from us than the other way round.
Hoepfully we're being careful about not exporting it.

 

[diablo]

Greggs is closing from tonight.

Love Greggs. Iceland do a frozen range of Greggs classics.

 

[newguy]

If there are still 7000 passengers a week arriving, that's still way more than 99% reduction.
There have definitely been a lot of repatriation flights and you can't ban citizens from coming home.
I don't know about screening but I hope they did improve it.
That Reddit post is really 'a mate of a mate said' though so does need more evidence.

Obviously we don't want it coming in through ports but it's already widespread in the population here.
Statistically, for most countries, people arriving here now are more likely to catch it from us than the other way round.
Hoepfully we're being careful about not exporting it.

That's certainly a good thing, I just hope these are all repatriation flights, 'if' not much in the way of screening upon arrival. I agree that the post may not be entirely accurate, though these flights do appear to be taking place, so it doesn't seem far off the mark.

I appreciate your point that it's effectively already here anyway, so what does it matter, but then that's also an argument that could be used by those ignoring the advice used to reduce the impact of the virus. It's a tricky balance I suppose, as I certainly wouldn't want people not to be able to return home, if they do indeed live here.

Really I think the government are feeling their way through this at present, and the herd immunity comments that have all but disappeared are something of an unknown one way or the other, as we don't know how long immunity lasts for. At least the longer vulnerable groups can stay safe, the longer we have to find effective treatments.

 

[Edwin]

The data on Worldometers appears only half-updated for the UK today (I believe they update every time they get new information). The number of deaths is correct at 54 (correct, as in "it matches the official reports") but I can't believe there are just 154 new cases of the coronavirus unless they've completely given up testing. I suspect that's just the figure for Wales, or something, and that the rest of the UK's test results haven't been bundled together yet.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/uk/

 

[Edwin]

It's not just taking the very old, and the very ill

 

[Murray]

Aren't most of us likely to get this at some point?

Maybe I've been misled but the isolation isn't about stopping it just slowing it down

If you weren't worried about dying from seasonal flu, no point worry about dying from corona

All you can do is be as healthy and careful as you can and after that not worry about it

Maybe we will all get it, maybe some of us have it now, maybe we will die in 3 weeks; if so might as well enjoy the time we have feeling good and not waste it finding every case of someone who died to dwell on

 

[Edwin]

FYI, KFC are shutting down between now and Wednesday.

Hopefully that will wake the stragglers up. Remember the chaos when they ran out of chicken?

 

[Siusaidh]

As diabolo pointed out above, it's slightly encouraging that after almost exactly mirroring the rate of deaths in Italy for 15 days, in these past two days, though deaths are still increasing here, they are NOT mirroring the Italian rate.

On 21st March we were on 233 deaths (exactly the number Italy had on the equivalent day in their spread). That very close parallel had been happening for 15 days in a row with pretty much identical rate of increase.

But by today (Monday morning) deaths should have stood at 463 to mirror the Italian equivalent, whereas in the UK they have for the first time lagged behind, at 335. Still not good, but any divergence from the terrible Italian rate is a plus.

The one proviso is that weekend reported deaths up to Monday morning here in the UK have shown a dip in the rate (maybe not all the weekend reports get through by 8am Monday), and the Tuesday numbers have tended to spike - so I am wondering if we'll see a rise in the rate tomorrow.

Today there were 54 deaths reported in 24 hours. I fear tomorrow the number may be around 80. Let's hope not.

The other proviso, as some people have also pointed out, is that you can't reliably equate figures from two different countries.However, I do think the related figures to prompt erring on the side of caution (which to me equates with starting stricter restrictions sooner to be on the safe side.

I wonder what the Prime Minister will say this evening?

 

[Edwin]

If you were worried about flights before...

Up to 1 million Britons on holiday or on business trips abroad have been asked to return to the UK immediately by the Foreign Office as they may not be able to get commercial flights within days.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...tons-abroad-urged-to-return-to-uk-immediately

How much do you think each of these returnees will be tracked?

Related aside: how on earth can a million people be so irresponsible as to have proceeded with their travels at a time like this?

 

[Edwin]

Added: with reference to the 7,000 people who supposedly have come here from China, Italy and Iran... if the Foreign Office's figure of a million Brits abroad for work travel/tourism is even close to correct, all 7,000 could have been Brits returning home for all any of us know. I wouldn't assume that they're foreign tourists being let into the country (or even wishing to come in the middle of a pandemic).