Harry, I had first hand knowledge of the failure of the British government and its Bangkok embassy to act competently through colleagues in several departments. The vast majority of affected citizens were on packaged tours and not only lost their passports but their credit cards, cash and T/Cs. It was a fucking shambles and it took the Germans to charter rescue flights for those unable to secure flights for themselves at DM.
It was such a fucking disgrace that it galvanised the FCO into restructuring a disaster protocol that simply didn't exist before and formed the template that exists now except that thIS Tory government refuses to act on it. They are shit, and there it is.....they refused to stock protective clothing and goggles because it was too expensive, they refused to buy more ventilators because they didn't think it worthwhile and have the least number in Europe, and they have the least number of ICU beds among the EU lead nations because it was too expensive to create more and now after ten long fucking years of austerity that has stripped the NHS bare people are dying.
Get your head out of your arse, the British are wank in preparing for and acting in emergencies but none more incompetent than this current bunch of government arseholes whose only qualification for their cabinet post was their slavish devotion to Brexitmania.
You know fuck all, you gormless blowhard.
Last edited by Seekingasylum; 29-03-2020 at 03:36 PM.
Although yet to be updated for today the info and charts on the link attached are quite comprehensive.
https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus
Thailand reports 143 new cases to a total of 1,388
Thailand reported 143 new coronavirus cases and one additional death related to the disease, reported Reuters.
That brings the country’s tally to 1,388 cases and seven deaths, said the report. Thailand has the second highest number of confirmed cases in Southeast Asia behind Malaysia. — Yen Nee Lee
Coronavirus live updates: Cases globally surpass 660,000
Australia says social distancing has helped to slow virus spread
The rate of daily increase in new coronavirus cases has halved in recent days in Australia, Reuters reported, citing the country’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
The daily increase in cases in recent days was around 13% to 15%, down from last week’s 25% to 30%, said Morrison, adding that social distancing measures were working, according to the Reuters report.
Australia reported 431 new confirmed cases, bringing total infections in the country to 3,809 with 14 deaths, according to its health ministry.
Morrison also announced an additional 1.1 billion Australian dollars ($678.2 million) in funding to expand telemedicine, mental health support and other health services to battle “the devastating impacts of coronavirus.” — Yen Nee Lee
^
Any numbers from the OZ indigenous desert tribes?
Any "Bush Tucker" bans?
A woman in her 70s has become the first New Zealander to die as a result of Covid-19.
The sheer mundanity of that report was almost so overwhelmingly dull that I momentarily thought I had fallen asleep.
You have to admire the cheek of these fucking chinkies. Because they didn't test the asymptomatic and are experiencing new cases, they are doing their best to blame it all on Johnny Foreigner. They won't take *any* responsibility for the damage they've done.
Over the past few weeks, as Chinese health officials reported new “imported” coronavirus cases almost every day, foreigners living in the country have noticed a change. They have been turned away from restaurants, shops, gyms and hotels, subjected to further screening, yelled at by locals and avoided in public spaces.
“I’m walking past someone, then they see my blue eyes and jump a foot back,” said Andrew Hoban, 33, who is originally from Ireland and lives in Shanghai.
Experiences range from socially awkward to xenophobic. An American walking with a group of foreigners in a park in Beijing saw a woman grab her child and run the other way. Others have described being called “foreign trash”. A recent online article, under an image of ship stacked with refuse being pushed away from China’s coast, was headlined: “Beware of a second outbreak started by foreign garbage.”
As China moves towards getting back to normal after months of paralysis, authorities are focused on avoiding a second wave of infections from overseas.
Since 19 March, China has reported only two locally transmitted cases but dozens arriving from abroad. By last Thursday, officials had reported a total of 595 imported cases since the outbreak began, the main source being the UK. Observers say the focus on imported cases has led to an increase in anti-foreign sentiment, which according to some has been on the rise for years.
“There is an effect when state media are reporting this is a foreign virus,” said Jeremiah Jenne, an American historian living in Beijing. “It is a new variation of a familiar theme: don’t trust foreigners. If there is another flare-up in China, the blame will fall on people coming from outside.”
Last Saturday, the country temporarily closed its borders to all foreign arrivals. Officials have also ordered local airlines to maintain only one route per country per week.
Some say the focus on foreigners – surprising given that 90% of imported cases were Chinese passport holders, according to the country’s foreign ministry – is the leadership’s attempt to shore up its image.
“If there is an opportunity to make themselves look strong, competent and legitimate by capitalising on public anxiety, they’ll take it,” said Mike Gow of the University of Nottingham’s China Policy Institute. “If that happens to stoke xenophobia, so be it.”
Several foreign residents stressed, however, that their experiences were not akin to those of Asians in the US and elsewhere, who have been beaten and subjected to racial slurs.
Bill Aitchison, 49, who is originally from the UK and lives between Xiamen and Nanjing, said: “I haven’t been attacked and haven’t heard of any foreigners being attacked… but the virus has unleashed some ugly sentiments. When borders close and walls go up, it seems people everywhere are apt to see the virus in those who are unfamiliar.”
But some foreign communities are experiencing more harassment. An African couple in Beijing were made to wait for two hours at a restaurant before a worker let slip that they were not supposed to allow in heiren – “black people”.
“The combination of pre-existing attitudes to race and Africans, plus this new wave of fear of foreigners, is making things worse,” said Runako Celina, co-founder of Black Livity China, which documents experiences of Africans and people of African descent in China. “Despite us doing this work steadily throughout the years, I don’t think there’s been a single period of time when we’ve had as many racism [or] discrimination-related incidents from different people and provinces.”
Others describe more scrutiny and wariness. American David Alexander, 32, who lives in the southern province of Jiangsu, said his Chinese co-workers had been advised to stay away from foreigners. In a shop last week, a couple waited until he had left before entering. “There is a sense of fear around foreigners,” he said.
But several foreign residents said they did not feel unsafe, with the minor incidents they experienced not enough to make them reconsider living in China. Others said being treated like a pariah after having lived in the country for years was mostly disheartening.
Chris Lemos, 29, an American living in Shanghai, said he took a seat on the metro last week and a woman abruptly moved to the other side of the carriage.
Lemos, who had been in the city for three months, hunkering down at home to avoid falling ill or infecting others, had hoped for some solidarity. “I was in the trenches with them, so to speak,” he said.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/29/china-coronavirus-anti-foreigner-feeling-imported-cases
There is now a notice in the elevator where I live politely asking tenants not drink the hand sanitizer.
Balls! I'll swallow it and run a mile!
The Brazilian idiot is still at it too.
Even as coronavirus cases mount in Latin America's largest nation, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has staked out the most deliberately dismissive position of any major world leader, calling the pandemic a momentary, minor problem and saying strong measures to contain it are unnecessary.
Bolsonaro says his response to the disease matches that of President Donald Trump in the US, but the Brazilian leader has gone further, labelling the virus as "a little flu" and saying state governors' aggressive measures to halt the disease were crimes.
On Thursday, Bolsonaro told reporters in the capital, Brasilia, that he feels Brazilians' natural immunity will protect the nation.
"The Brazilian needs to be studied. He doesn't catch anything. You see a guy jumping into sewage, diving in, right? Nothing happens to him. I think a lot of people were already infected in Brazil, weeks or months ago, and they already have the antibodies that help it not proliferate," Bolsonaro said. "I'm hopeful that's really a reality."
A video titled "Brazil Cannot Stop" that circulated on social media drew a rebuke from Monica de Bolle, a Brazilian senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
"Do you know what will happen, Bolsonaro? Brazil WILL stop. Your irresponsibility will bring thousands to avoidable deaths," she tweeted Friday. "The destroyed lungs of these people, as well as the organs of those who won't be able to have medical care, will fall on your lap. And Brazil will not spare you."
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12320735
A third of coronavirus cases may be ‘silent carriers’, classified Chinese data suggests
The number of “silent carriers” – people who are infected by the new coronavirus but show delayed or no symptoms – could be as high as one-third of those who test positive, according to classified Chinese government data seen by the South China Morning Post.
That could further complicate the strategies being used by countries to contain the virus, which has infected more than 300,000 people and killed more than 14,000 globally.
More than 43,000 people in China had tested positive for Covid-19 by the end of February but had no immediate symptoms, a condition typically known as asymptomatic, according to the data. They were placed in quarantine and monitored but were not included in the official tally of confirmed cases, which stood at about 80,000 at the time.
Scientists have been unable to agree on what role asymptomatic transmission plays in spreading the disease. A patient usually develops symptoms in five days, though the incubation period can be as long as three weeks in some rare cases.
One obstacle is that countries tally their confirmed cases differently.
The World Health Organisation classifies all people who test positive as confirmed cases regardless of whether they experience any symptoms. South Korea also does this. But the Chinese government changed its classification guidelines on February 7, counting only those patients with symptoms as confirmed cases. The United States, Britain and Italy simply do not test people without symptoms, apart from medical workers who have prolonged exposure to the virus.
The approach taken by China and South Korea of testing anyone who has had close contact with a patient – regardless of whether the person has symptoms – may explain why the two Asian countries seem to have checked the spread of the virus. Hong Kong is extending testing to airport arrivals in the city, even if travellers have no symptoms.
Meanwhile in most European countries and the US, where only those with symptoms are tested, the number of infections continues to rapidly rise.
MORE A third of coronavirus cases may be ‘silent carriers’, classified Chinese data suggests | South China Morning Post
Spain still tanking along sadly.
Another 838 people died in Spain in the past 24 hours, the health ministry has announced - the highest daily rise in fatalities so far.
It brings the number of deaths from the virus to 6,528.
The total number of those infected rose to 78,797 from 72,248.
At least a few remote communities have been closed off completely.
And many older Aussies who were travelling around the country in campervans (as they do....they call it "doing the big lap") have been made very unwelcome in rural towns.
Tyres have even been slashed, and people told to piss off.
I believe all "grey nomads" have had to leave Tasmania.
The Korean government said a few days ago that 80% of cases bought to Korea from abroad were Korean nationals returning to Korea - it's likely that China is similar: they gave it to the world, now Chinese folk returning to their homeland are bringing it back with them. I wonder what the numbers of Chinese nationals travelling to China v non-Chinese nationals - wouldn't have thought China has been a high tourist spot in 2020.
Cycling should be banned!!!
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