International COVID-19 Megathread

[Tender Branson]

Police and health workers are now indeed checking EVERY single car and truck coming in from Italy ... resulting in a 100 km (60 mile) traffic jam today at the Brenner crossing down to Bozen !

Truck drivers have to wait 2 days in line on the highway to pass into Austria.

LOL.

[Tender Branson]

Kurz just announced that some regions in Austria (especially Tyrol) will be put under a 2-week quarantine.

There were a lot of people doing their Friday shopping today, more than usually.

I still only bought stuff for a couple days (normal).

[Tender Branson]

Austria cases by day and state:

[Tender Branson]

Seen at a Vienna supermarket:

[Tender Branson]

Great cartoon in today's SN (= main Salzburg) newspaper:



Left: Good, very good, best.

Right: Bad, very bad, extremely bad.

(In Tyrol, people are still greeting each other with "Heil !" these days, nothing weird. But they already greeted each other with "Heil !" some 150 years ago already, so ...)

[Tender Branson]

From Italy:

Doctors keep a list of people who want to say goodbye to their relatives via video.

"I hope we get mini iPads, at least three or four, so that people don't have to die alone."

Also:

Spain introduces a complete lockdown on the country soon.

[Tender Branson]

The number of new cases in Austria is slowing a bit.

+98 cases yesterday vs. about 150 the days before.

600 in total now.

[Tender Branson]

Just did some shopping.

Everything very normal, the shelves are full and only a few people in there - but still a lot of tourists around.

Tomorrow, all ski resorts in Austria will close early and hotels are also closing, which means most tourists are gone by next week.

This is terrible, because about 20% of Austria's GDP is tourism-related.

[Tender Branson]

Something I find interesting:

Italy borders 3 Austrian states (Tyrol, Salzburg and Carinthia).

But while Tyrol and Carinthia have long borders with Italy and several road crossings, Salzburg only has a mountain border that is not really accessible unless you are a professional skier at 3000 meters.

Yet Tyrol has the most infections so far with 250, while Carinthia has the lowest with 5.

[Tender Branson]

The Ibuprofen story has been debunked as fake news:

No evidence of negative effects of medication

There is no scientific evidence of a negative impact from taking nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or ACE inhibitors or sartans in Covid-19 patients or those infected. This was explained on Saturday evening by MedUni Vienna Rector Markus Müller and pharmacologist Michael Freissmuth to APA.

The non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug ibuprofen and the so-called ACE inhibitors or angiotesin II receptor blockers (sartans) were mentioned in this context. "There is nothing there. The thing with ibuprofen is the problem of a subgroup analysis," said Müller. It is clear that people who get headache or flu-like symptoms increasingly resorted to such nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Constructing a connection with Covid-19 from this is wrong.

"When it comes to blood pressure medication, it is impossible to say whether it has any effect on Covid-19," said Freissmuth. There are both opinions that they can protect and the opposite. There was no scientific data at all.

The European Cardiology Society (ESC) has already given a clear statement: "These speculations about the safety of ACE inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blockers have no solid scientific basis."

Googletranslated from derstandard.at

[Tender Branson]

We can go out only to work, buy food, doctor, chemist... we can't go to the beach, to have a drink or a coffee, not even to take a walk

Spain, 2020

That’s also what Kurz advised Austrians to do, just a few minutes ago during an interview ...

„There are only 3 major reasons to leave the house right now: to buy food/important medicine, go to work that cannot be done at home, or to volunteer and show solidarity with those who cannot help/provide for themselves.“

https://kurier.at/politik/inland/sebastian-kurz-es-gibt-nur-drei-gruende-hinauszugehen/400781522

[Tender Branson]

Austria will close all restuarants starting Tuesday. Furthermore, all gatherings over five people are banned. Parliament is set to pass some sort of emergency bill.

Officials of the German football league are now talking about postphoning the UEFA Euro Cup this year. Potentially to be delayed to 2021. Something like this has never happened since World War II.

Police will start patrolling tomorrow.

If they find groups of people, the persons will be fined 2.200€ each.

Kids cannot meet at playgrounds. Sports clubs training is not allowed anymore. If they do, the clubs will lose state funds for the next years to come.

Also: Tyrol will have a total lockdown, starting at midnight.

[Tender Branson]

What Italians are doing at home during the lockdown:

https://twitter.com/maxkava/status/1238895581193547778

Thinking about it, it’s not good that Austrians are put into lockdown as well.

They will spend most of their time A) in the basement, or B) enlarging it.

[Tender Branson]

Spanish lockdown violations by people result in fines of up to 30.000€ or 4 years imprisonment.

[Tender Branson]

Austria has ~850 cases now as of 3pm.

That's up by more than 200 since yesterday 3pm, or by about 30%.

[Tender Branson]

I think I’m shifting into Libertarian hoarding/prepper mode tomorrow ...

[Tender Branson]

And with a "giant brain" pseudo-eugenicist lurking in the background.

Small wonder that conspiracy theories have thrived.

I’m sure that a Chinese millennial hipster intern at a bioweapon facility leaked it outside to kill Boomers.

[Tender Branson]

The EU commission says that the economy will shrink by between 1% and 3% this year, depending on how long the virus lasts until it is contained.

The same is likely true for the US.

[Tender Branson]

Heavy critique is mounting at the Ischgl ski resort in Tyrol and the ÖVP-Green government in Tyrol + Governor Platter:

On March 5 (!) already, Icelandic officials declared the Ischgl ski resort a „hotbed“ of infections.

More than 1.000 Scandinavian tourists infected themselves in hotels during vacation there and brought the virus with them into the North.

Ischgl did nothing.

Greed led to ski lifts being open until yesterday (!) afternoon, with huts full of guests sunbathing next to each other or in gondolas or lifts.

[Tender Branson]

The Islamic State has issued a travel restriction for their terrorists and have warned them to travel to „infected Europe“ ...

[Tender Branson]

The whole state of Tyrol has been put under quarantine at midnight, meaning nobody can leave their town (except if there's no doctor, bank, supermarket in that town).

[Tender Branson]

There will be a HUGE toll on the economy this year:

Lots of companies are currently going bankrupt or shutting down, the daily (!) numbers of people filing unemployment claims is 15.000

In the past 3 days, 50.000 additional people in Austria became unemployed.

Before this week, there was a balance between people filing new unemployment claims vs. those finding new jobs or even more new jobs than unemployment claims - resulting in lower unemployment in general.

Not any longer.

This will be far worse than 2008/09 ...

[Tender Branson]

Coronavirus also has positive side effects:

Pollution levels in the atmosphere are down significantly, as seen in satellite images from ESA.

The curfews and shutdowns of heavy industries and traffic can be clearly seen.

[Tender Branson]

Updated unemployment filings in Austria:

In the past 4 days, 75.000 additional people (!) have filed for unemployment.

At the end of February, there were about 350.000 registered unemployed here - so that’s a jump of more than 20% in 4 days alone.

And that’s on top of most companies sending their employees home for home office work or paid vacation right now ...

[Tender Branson]

Working from „home office“: