The COVID-2019 Thread

[harrybarracuda]

I'm surprised Spain is sending people back to work.

Spain eases some restrictions as rate of coronavirus infections hits new low | World news | The Guardian

[harrybarracuda]

These jesus wheezers certainly seem to want to meet their maker.

Bulgarian priests give communion with a single spoon for Palm Sunday, churchgoers all kiss the icons, priests claim you can't contract the disease if you have faith

Църкви причестяват с обща лъжичка

[harrybarracuda]

It seems that, in Chinastan, Black Lives don't Matter.

McDonalds will be scrabbling to get ahead of this I fancy.

I love the "Please understand the inconvience caused", I think they fucking do already!

"Apart from having to experience the humiliation of getting unceremoniously thrown out of accommodation that they paid for, they have also had to suffer the indignity of getting turned away from restaurants, convenience stores and other retail shops.

With nowhere to go and nothing to eat, many have had to rely on other members of the foreign community and kind-hearted locals to stay nourished and warm at night.

One man who thought he might be able to buy himself a meal at McDonald’s had to leave hungry. An employee at the Citic Plaza outlet of the fast-food chain handed him a notice that read:"

We’ve been informed that from now on black people are not allowed to enter the restaurant. For the sake of your health consciously notify the local police for medical isolation, please understand the inconvenience caused. police TEL:110

Even McDonald’s is now turning away black customers in Guangzhou – Shanghaiist

[jabir]

Feel for them, I hear blacks in China are being treated worse than farangs in Thailand.

[crackerjack101]

Does anyone else doubt the efficiency of the temperature guns. My wife, granddaughter( 5 ) and I got stopped today. They recorded 32, I got 37. We'd been in the same car with A/c blasting for an hour.

[HermantheGerman]

These jesus wheezers certainly seem to want to meet their maker.



Църкви причестяват с обща лъжичка

...you said it


Prof. Dr. Mehmet Ceyhan, specialist in infectious diseases, said: "Allah created the virus so that the population does not grow baseless and there are more food sources."

[crackerjack101]

People get so excited .....

[harrybarracuda]

Jaysus, the Victorian old bill are a bit keen aren't they?

A Victorian couple was fined $1,652 each for breaching coronavirus restrictions after sharing year-old holiday snaps on Facebook.

Jazz Mot said Victoria Police fined her and her husband Garry for being in Lakes Entrance - two hours from their home - after she shared images on social media earlier this month.

But they hadn’t left their home.

“I posted the photos that we took in Lakes Entrance in June last year,” she told 7NEWS.

The Traralgon woman says police then arrived at her home to issue the fine for “going for a drive to Lakes Entrance (non-essential travel)“.

A Victoria Police spokesman told 7NEWS the incident had been reviewed and “the decision has been made to withdraw the infringement notice”.

“On occasion, errors will be made however that is why a review process exists to ensure instances such as these are identified and rectified,” he said.

https://7news.com.au/lifestyle/health-wellbeing/coronavirus-australia-update-victorian-couple-fined-3300-over-year-old-holiday-snaps-c-973271?utm_campaign=share-icons&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&tid=158 6769021127

[bowie]

Does anyone else doubt the efficiency of the temperature guns. My wife, granddaughter( 5 ) and I got stopped today. They recorded 32, I got 37. We'd been in the same car with A/c blasting for an hour.

Used them a while ago at work - to get repeatable and accurate thermal reading the sensor must be held at an exact distance from the surface being measured. The chances of store entrance associate providing an accurate temperature measurement are slim. However, considering she or he is standing there making repeat measurements on a long line of people entering, well, you would hope that someone with an elevated temperature would stand out, not so much someone with a slightly elevated temperature.

I've even seen them holding two sensors for use, in case one should show a high reading.

[harrybarracuda]

Used them a while ago at work - to get repeatable and accurate thermal reading the sensor must be held at an exact distance from the surface being measured. The chances of store entrance associate providing an accurate temperature measurement are slim. However, considering she or he is standing there making repeat measurements on a long line of people entering, well, you would hope that someone with an elevated temperature would stand out, not so much someone with a slightly elevated temperature.

I've even seen them holding two sensors for use, in case one should show a high reading.

Our company standard is 38 and you're sent to hospital.

That leaves quite a bit of viral wiggle room I think.

[harrybarracuda]

Damn, so rats are resorting to cannibalism.

Maybe it is the zombie apocalypse.

Starving, angry and cannibalistic: America'''s rats are getting desperate amid coronavirus pandemic

[misskit]

China’s new coronavirus cases rise to near six-week high

BEIJING (Reuters) – China reported the highest number of new daily coronavirus cases in nearly six weeks, driven by a rise in infected travellers arriving from overseas and underscoring challenges Beijing faces in preventing a second wave of COVID-19.


A total of 108 new coronavirus cases were reported on Sunday, up from 99 a day earlier and marking the highest number of cases since 143 cases were reported on March 5.


The total number of confirmed cases in mainland China now stands at 82,160, while the death toll rose by two to 3,341.


The National Health Commission said on Monday that 98 of the new cases were imported involving people entering China from another country, a new record and up from 97 a day earlier. The number of asymptomatic cases fell to 61 from 63 a day earlier.


Though the number of daily infections have dropped sharply from the height of the epidemic in February, China has seen the daily toll creep higher after hitting a trough on March 12 as the virus spread globally. Beijing is concerned that infected people entering the country could trigger a second wave and push the country back into a state of near paralysis.


The northeast Heilongjiang province, which borders Russia, reported 56 new cases — 49 from Russia.


Chinese cities near the border with Russia said on Sunday they would tighten border controls and quarantine measures on arrivals.


The border city of Suifenhe and Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang, said they would require all arrivals from abroad to undergo 28 days of quarantine, as well as nucleic acid and antibody tests.


Harbin will also lock down residential units where confirmed and asymptomatic coronavirus cases are found for 14 days.

China’s new coronavirus cases rise to near six-week high – Thai PBS World

[misskit]

Thailand’s new daily COVID-19 infection rate falls to 28, the lowest for 3 months

Thailand has reported a steady drop in new COVID-19 infections for 5 consecutive days, from last Thursday’s 54 to 28 today – the lowest rate for three weeks.


According to CCSA spokesman Dr. Taweesin Visanuyothin, the country’s accumulated infections to date are 2,579, while the death toll has increased by two to 40. 70 more patients have recovered and returned home, bringing total recoveries to 1,288.


Of the 28 new infections, 18 of them are associated with those previously infected, three medical personnel, two were in high-risk occupations, one was a returnee from abroad and another visited a crowded place.


One fatality was a 56-year old Thai man who was in close contact with an infected person. He was admitted to hospital in Samut Prakan province on March 14th with a fever, cough, breathing difficulties and fatigue. His condition deteriorated on March 23rd and he needed a respirator to help him breathe, but he succumbed to the infection yesterday.


The second fatality was a 43-year old diabetic office worker who had chronic kidney disease. He became sick with similar symptoms on March 23rd and was admitted to a hospital on March 31st, where a lung infection was diagnosed on April 5th. He died six days later.


Dr. Taweesin said that Phuket still has the highest infection rate, with 44.03% per 100,000 of the population. Numerically, Bangkok has the highest accumulated infections at 1,306, followed by Phuket’s 182 and Nonthaburi’s 150.


Infections among family members and Thais returning from a pilgrimage to Indonesia account for the largest cluster of new infections, with 61 cases linked to the pilgrimage, said the CCSA spokesman.


He attributed the high infections in Phuket to a delay in screening for the infected, noting that 50% of these cases came forward for tests three days after they had developed symptoms.


His Majesty the King has praised all parties involved in the efforts to contain the spread of coronavirus from the Government, medical personnel and health volunteers to the military, police, local officials, the private sector and the public.


The King offered moral support to all and said that he and Her Majesty the Queen are ready to help if the Government needs anything from them.


Meanwhile, Colonel Sirichan Ngathong, deputy spokeswoman for the army, disclosed that Their Majesties the King and Queen have donated food and essential items, such as face masks, sanitizer gel and medicines, to over 120,000 households in 623 communities in Bangkok since April 5th.


Similar donations have also been provided to rural households through the Crown Prince hospitals.


Thailand’s new daily COVID-19 infection rate falls to 28, the lowest for 3 months – Thai PBS World

[Bogon]

I got a 36 reading at Tesco Lotus yesterday.

This would have been the onset of hyperthermia if correct!

Got in on my second reading.

[bowie]

I got a 36 reading at Tesco Lotus yesterday.

I've had five readings, all in the 36 to 36.5 range.

Accuracy requires an exact distance, the further away the larger the diameter being sensed. Precision is required for accuracy and repeatability.

[Takeovers]

Melitta starts production of millions of face masks - Melitta Corporate Site

Did you click your link? It shows exactly the mask I showed in my post. It is produced on the coffee filter production line but it is not coffee filter material. It is virus filter quality.

[OhOh]

It seems that, in Chinastan, Black Lives don't Matter.

"Authorities in Guangzhou reiterated that equal policies are in place for both foreigners and Chinese nationals in screening for COVID-19 patients coming along with imported cases, amid viral reports in Western media alleging Africans are being discriminated against and badly treated in the city, which was used by some Western media to provoke the problems between China and African countries.

Since March, Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong Province and an important international hub in the Chinese mainland after Beijing and Shanghai, has been enhancing the management of all international arrivals, whether Chinese or foreigners, in the face of a growing number of imported cases of novel coronavirus infections.

As of Sunday, 119 imported cases and 13 domestic cases caused by these imported cases have been discovered in Guangzhou, of whom 25 were foreigners. All the imported cases and related domestic cases were discovered during the city's screening procedure, local officials said at the press conference.

Guangzhou has been screening international arrivals from key areas heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Some 4,600 people from these areas and their close contacts have been tracked and given nucleic acid tests since April 5, Wen said.

Another 1,557 people arriving on flights between March 7 and 27, including both Chinese and foreigners, have also received tests, according Wen.

All the imported cases and related domestic cases were discovered during the city's virus screening procedure.

International arrivals enjoy equal treatment and should abide by the same disease prevention and control measures as residents, Wen said, noting that the city has been enhancing health services for foreigners during the COVID-19 epidemic.

Wen's remarks came amid viral international media reports over the weekend alleging that Africans in Guangzhou were being evicted from their homes by landlords and turned away by hotels.

Chinese analysts said that twisted reports were stoking a long-existing controversy over Africans in Guangzhou to a new high and urged the local governments to be more transparent and to respond to controversies in a timelier manner to avoid the issue being exploited by the West to damage China-Africa relations.

If Africans violated the Chinese law, "we should punish them," said He Wenping, a research fellow with the institute of West-Asian and African studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing.

"And if the police really conduct uncivilized law enforcement, we should correct it. But individual cases should not be generalized," He told the Global Times on Sunday.

Some African people living in Guangzhou may not agree with the strict quarantine measures imposed by local authorities, but Kingswill Oba, a Nigerian businessman living in Guangzhou, said the measures were important as they related to personal health and the safety of all foreigners and Guangzhou citizens.

"For me, what I care about is my health and my life. Health is wealth," Oba told the Global Times on Sunday. "We must obey the rules of quarantine, which I like because I'm concerned about my health."

China had successfully contained the virus spread, Oba noted.

At the Guangdong provincial press conference on Sunday, Yang Rihua, deputy director-general of Guangdong Provincial Public Security Department, noted that all foreigners in the province should accept measures including checks, tests and quarantines.
Violators would be punished, warned, detained or expelled according to Chinese law, Yang noted.

Western trap

Officials from African countries including Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya have reportedly summoned Chinese ambassadors and complained of the alleged ill treatment.

Ghana's ministry of foreign affairs and regional integration had expressed extreme disappointment and displeasure over recent happenings in China with regards to the African community, local media reported.

Nigeria's Speaker of the House of Representatives Femi Gbajabiamila tweeted Saturday that he had shown a video clip of alleged ill treatment by Chinese authorities of Nigerian citizens in China to Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria Zhou Pingjian and required the Chinese side to investigate and respond.

On Sunday, the Chinese Embassy in Nigeria issued a statement saying that Zhou has clarified at site during a meeting with Gbajabiamila that the authorities in the video did not do any misconduct and reiterated that China "treat all foreign nationals equally in China. We reject differential treatment and have zero tolerance for discrimination.".

The statement called for mutual understanding, support and cooperation during disease prevention and noted that foreigners should strictly follow local rules.

Li Haidong, a professor at the institute of international relations of China Foreign Affairs University in Beijing, told the Global Times on Sunday that the epidemic was not as serious in the African continent as in China.

For this reason Li opined that many arriving Africans could not immediately accept China's strict measures.

China would not change its consistent stance to support Africa in the pandemic, Li said. Politicians and diplomats of some African countries should not fall into the trap set by the West and blame China wrongly, Li noted.

"This would hurt the real friends and favor the troublemakers," Li said.

A US State Department spokesman was quoted by media as saying Saturday that the "abuse and mistreatment of Africans living and working in China is a sad reminder of how hollow the PRC-Africa partnership really is."

Chinese analysts slammed the remarks saying they were aimed at smearing China's image among African people.

The remarks would not succeed as China-Africa relations are built on deepened cooperation and mutual trust, the experts agreed.

Imported reports

Guangzhou is the only trading port in China that has been open for 2,000 years, resulting in a broad and complex composition of foreign residents.

According to Wen, more than 86,000 foreigners were living in Guangzhou as of December 25, 2019, of whom 13,652 were from Africa.

Due to the epidemic, about 50,000 foreign residents have not been able to return to Guangzhou as of April 10, so only 30,768 are currently staying in the city, including 4,600 South Koreans, 4,553 Africans and 2,987 Japanese, Wen said.

Guangzhou authorities started a house-to-house screening in the city's African communities after reports of some Africans violating local disease control rules, a Nigerian business person living in Guangzhou who required anonymity said in a post shared with the Global Times.

For example, a Nigerian with a confirmed infection upon arrival attacked local medical workers and refused treatment on April 1.

In addition, five other Nigerians were found infected during screening and four had visited a local restaurant many times.

"For those of us here, we were isolated, tested and issued our [health] cards before we were able to move around," said the anonymous Nigerian.

"But some people coming in want to move around without testing, and it's not good for the people who are already in there."

The businessman said he had stayed at home a month and two weeks and no one has evicted him from his house and no one has refused to let him come in.

"Follow the rules, and things will be easy for you," he said.

Continuous reports of infections among Africans and domestic transmission related to these cases put local residents on high alert and lead to some landlords asking their African tenants to leave, according to Li Dong, a photographer and veteran observer of Guangzhou's African community.

The authorities also lacked experience in dealing with such an emergency and there could be delays and confrontations in dealing with the group, Li noted.

These people have all been sent to designated quarantine hotels as of now, according to Li.

Among them, some were currently living in China illegally and might be expelled after finishing quarantine according to Chinese law, Li asserted."

Equal treatment of foreigners reiterated - Global Times

I hear blacks in China are being treated worse than farangs in Thailand.

Now that's a conspiracy. Everyone knows farangs are held in high esteem in LOS. Sometimes Thai ladies throw themselves at handsome farangs after only one or two soft drinks.

[HermantheGerman]

A German Exception? Why the Country’s Coronavirus Death Rate Is Low


A German Exception? Why the Country’s Coronavirus Death Rate Is Low - The New York Times

[harrybarracuda]

"Authorities in Guangzhou reiterated that equal policies are in place for both foreigners and Chinese nationals in screening for COVID-19 patients coming along with imported cases, amid viral reports in Western media alleging Africans are being discriminated against and badly treated in the city, which was used by some Western media to provoke the problems between China and African countries.

That's amateurish backpedalling even from the chinkies, desperately trying to cover their abuse of African guests.

Across African capitals, Chinese ambassadors are being hauled over by foreign ministries to explain horrid scenes that have gone viral on social media platforms of African migrants being evicted from apartments and refused entry into hotels.

The videos have enraged governments and citizens back home.

The incidents have sparked a diplomatic race row with the African Union, various African governments and even the United States all putting pressure on Beijing over the reported treatment of black migrants, who are predominantly from African countries. Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda are among those that have asked for explanations from the Chinese government.

“I don’t know where I will sleep tonight,” a man from Ghana says in a nighttime video, luggage strewn on the streets.

“We are Nigerians, Ugandans and Ghanaians; we are stranded now.”

In another video, a group of black men can be seen pulling their luggage and being herded through the rainy streets by police officers. “They are chasing us away. We are just walking on the road. They [are not] giving us houses, they [are not] giving us hotels…They don’t want us to stay at one place,” the person .

On Saturday, the front page of Kenya’s Nation newspaper read: “Kenyans in China: Rescue us from hell”.

https://qz.com/africa/1836510/africans-in-china-being-evicted-from-homes-after-lockdown-ends/

The African ambassadors' letter sent to China's top diplomat, Wang Yi, highlighted a number of reported incidents, including that Africans were being ejected from hotels in the middle of the night, the seizure of passports, and threats of visa revocation, arrest or deportation.

The note said such "stigmatisation and discrimination" created the false impression that the virus was being spread by Africans.

"The Group of African Ambassadors in Beijing immediately demands the cessation of forceful testing, quarantine and other inhuman treatments meted out to Africans," it said.

Foreign affairs official Liu Baochun told a news conference on Sunday that Guangzhou is enforcing anti-virus measures on anyone who enters the city from across the national border, regardless of nationality, race or gender.

The Chinese embassy in Zimbabwe on Saturday dismissed the accusation that Africans were being deliberately targeted.

"It is harmful to sensationalise isolated incidents," it said in a tweeted statement. "China treats all individuals in the country, Chinese and foreign alike, as equals."

Al Jazeera's Ahmed Idris, reporting from the Nigerian capital Abuja, said there is both "anger and disbelief" among the African officials.

On Saturday, Ghana's foreign affairs minister Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey said she had summoned the Chinese ambassador to express her disappointment and demand action.

Kenya's foreign ministry has also "officially expressed concern", adding the government is working with Chinese authorities to address the matter.

On Friday, Nigerian legislator Akinola Alabi tweeted a video of a meeting between the leader of Nigeria's lower house of parliament, Femi Gbajabiamila, and Chinese Ambassador Zhou Pingjian.

In it, Gbajabiamila demanded an explanation from the diplomat after showing Zhou a video of a Nigerian complaining about mistreatment in China.

Al Jazeera's Idris said, privately, there is also a concern that the incidents could have repercussions for the Chinese community living in Africa.

"There is also a fear among African governments of backlash against Chinese workers working on the African continent because of what is happening in Guangzhou and other parts of China as well," Idris said.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/...100315200.html

[NamPikToot]

From the Beeb.

The number of people who have died in the UK after being hospitalised and testing positive for coronavirus has now reached 11,329.


The government's department for health and social care said it is a rise of 717 from Easter Sunday's total.

Still quoting hospitalised so the real figure must be much higher

[NamPikToot]

^ and here's why

Half of coronavirus deaths happen in care homes

data from EU suggests figures from Italy, Spain, France, Ireland and Belgium suggest UK may be underestimating care sector deaths

About half of all Covid-19 deaths appear to be happening in care homes in some European countries, according to early figures gathered by UK-based academics who are warning that the same effort must be put into fighting the virus in care homes as in the NHS.


Snapshot data from varying official sources shows that in Italy, Spain, France, Ireland and Belgium between 42% and 57% of deaths from the virus have been happening in homes, according to the report by academics based at the London School of Economics (LSE).


Published official data for care homes in England and Wales are believed to significantly underestimate deaths in the sector, with the Office for National Statistics only recording 20 coronavirus-related deaths in all care homes in the week ending 27 March. New figures are due out on Tuesday, but are unlikely to be up to date.


Last week the industry body Care England told the Guardian the total figure was probably approaching 1,000, with deaths reaching into double figures at numerous homes. Over the weekend details of more deaths emerged, including 12 residents who died at the 71-capacity Stanley Park care home in County Durham, and there have reportedly been five deaths at Almond Court in Glasgow.


Last week Prof Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England, said that just over 9% of care homes had cases of Covid-19. But the spread of the virus and its lethality in care homes in five European Union countries appears to be higher, according to academics who are calling for better UK data and a more urgent response to the crisis in care homes.


In its first review of early international evidence, researchers from the International Long Term Care Policy Network (LTCPN), found the most robust data was available in Ireland where, as of Saturday, 54% of deaths from coronavirus occurred in care homes, according to centralised government figures.


In Italy, a government survey covering deaths in 10% of the nations’ care homes suggested 45% of all deaths in that country could be in care homes, while central government data in France released at the weekend showed the same proportion of the 13,832 deaths in that country happened in care. In Belgium, health ministry figures showed 42% of Covid-19 deaths happened in care homes and in Spain, leaked regional government data suggested 57% of the country’s death toll from 8 March to 8 April was from care homes.


https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/13/half-of-coronavirus-deaths-happen-in-care-homes-data-from-eu-suggests

[Dillinger]

Thailand job losses may hit 10 million if virus outbreak drags on - Reuters

[NamPikToot]

^ even cheaper more grateful labour for their Chink masters - sadly

[Klondyke]

In my younger years I had liked to read books by a Dutch author Jan de Hartog. Books mostly about seamen's life and adventures, the most famous that time "Hollands Glorie" (in English later as "Captain Jan"), some of them made in movies by Hollywood.

However, one of his later books sprang surprisingly (for me that time) of the line, "The Hospital". A non-fiction from his and his wife's volunteer activity in Houston, Texas hospital, where they used to live in 50s.

While Jan was out lecturing at the University of Houston on playwriting,[6] Marjorie was looking for community volunteer opportunities for both of them to participate in. She decided on Jefferson Davis County Hospital. Conditions there were bad at that time, and with the hospital being significantly underfunded, understaffed, and overcrowded, showed no sign of getting better.[1]

Jan decided to document the conditions there,[7] resulting in the non-fiction memoir The Hospital (1964), which exposed the awful conditions of Houston's charity hospitals in the 1960s. The book received a national response, but also a local response in which, within a week of the book's release, nearly four hundred citizens volunteered at the hospital.[1] It led to significant reforms of the city's indigent healthcare system through the creation of the Harris County Hospital District. It also led, however, to considerable hostility and many anonymous threats, which finally forced the de Hartogs to move back to Europe. Jan de Hartog - Wikipedia

I am bringing this up just to see that the bad situation with COVID-19 - as we see nowadays in USA - should not surprise anybody when knowing the bad situation of the public health care existing over few generations.

And with consideration of the current low death figures in the Eastern Europe countries it gives some thoughts...

[Little Chuchok]

Pope Francis Says Coronavirus May Be a '''Response''' From Nature | Play Stuff

Pope Francis Says Coronavirus May Be a 'Response' From Nature

00:58




In a new interview, the head of the Catholic Church linked the global outbreak to our failure to properly address climate change.