International COVID-19 Megathread

[Middle-aged Europe]

Update: One more case in Germany. This time in Baden-Württemberg (my state). Apparantly a 25 year old man who recently traveled to Italy.

^^ It's spreading in Germany now too. The aformentioned case in Baden-Württemberg has infected his girlfriend and his girlfriend's father. The father happens to be a doctor at a hospital and had contact to other doctors over the last days.

Yesterday, there was also another case reported in Northrhine-Westphalia. That one has already infected his wife too, a kindergarten teacher. The kids from the kindergarten and their parents have been quarantined.

Therefore the total of reported infections in Germany has risen from 14 to 19 in a day.

[President Johnson]

It seems a huge uncertainty is that we still don't exactly know how infection works. In Italy, it's still unknown who "Patient 1" is and how the virus spread. Only through droplet infection or is the virus on basically everything someone touches? If the latter is the case, even regular hand washing isn't enough, because you often touch other things in between, such as bags, desks, computers, door handles etc. Then we're talking about the worst case, meaning a large junk of population (and a mortality of 2% or below is still a huge raw number).

[Middle-aged Europe]

In the last couple of hours there have been two additional cases in Germany, one of them a soldier from the Executive Transport Wing of the German Air Force. This brings us to 21 infections, I think.

This will probably continue to spread for now and additional infections are to be expected. All seven cases that have been reported since yesterday were from the western and southwestern states of Baden-Württemberg, Northrhine-Westphalia, and Rhineland-Palatinate.

[Middle-aged Europe]

The total number of reported cases in Germany is now at 27.
13 of them in the last 48 hours, all located in the southern/western regions of the country.

Italy: 455 infections, but the good news is that there have been no new fatalities.

[President Johnson]

14 new cases in Northrhine Westphalia today while 4 additional in Baden-Württemberg just confirmed. Also two more deaths in Italy reported a few hours ago. It starts getting scary.

Edit: Confirmed cases in France have jumped from 18 to 38, Sweden from 5 to 7.

I've changed the headline now to current numbers.

[Middle-aged Europe]

I think we're now at 46 total reported cases in Germany, 32 of them in the last two days. A that rate we're gonna overtake the United States very soon.

[President Johnson]

I think we're now at 46 total reported cases in Germany, 32 of them in the last two days. A that rate we're gonna overtake the United States very soon.

Probably because we're testing much more than the United States. California has over 8,000 people monitored at this point and not sufficient testing.

Aside from that, I have more faith in the federal government to handle this than the Trump Administration is performing so far. Hopefully state and local governments in the US can be more effective.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

47 suspected cases in Poland, but none confirmed. The government is claiming "full preparedness", but articles such as masks are pretty much unavailable at this time after the first panic rush.

The Left's presidential candidate, Robert Biedroń, announced he decided to visit China with his partner soon, despite warnings issues by the Foreign Ministry and the chief sanitary service. He said "it's cheap now, because no one is flying there" and "we're not scared, but one must be careful".

A highly visible public figure flagrantly ignoring the official travel warning to a country where the epidemic originated is... pretty irresponsible to say the least. But hey, it's cheap
 

[parochial boy]

I think we're now at 46 total reported cases in Germany, 32 of them in the last two days. A that rate we're gonna overtake the United States very soon.

Probably because we're testing much more than the United States. California has over 8,000 people monitored at this point and not sufficient testing.

Aside from that, I have more faith in the federal government to handle this than the Trump Administration is performing so far. Hopefully state and local governments in the US can be more effective.

And because we are now looking for it in people who have been to Italy. Up until a few days ago there will have been plenty of people getting the virus, but without a China link would just have been considering it as the flu, and getting through it like normal. Now we’re looking for those people so, obviously, we’re finding them.

Dunno about elsewhere but seems like the media have been trying to play a reassuring line here. Lots of epidemiologists and virologists talking about the majority of cases being mild, the death rate almost certainly being  overestimated and so on. Sometimes there’s some credit to the boring, sensible Swiss.

[Mike88]

47 suspected cases in Poland, but none confirmed. The government is claiming "full preparedness", but articles such as masks are pretty much unavailable at this time after the first panic rush.

That's basically copypaste of what's also happening in Portugal. There have been, for now, 52 suspected cases and 36 were negative, the others are still being tested. The governmet says that the country is prepared, and the health minister even says that Portugal is ready to face a similar situation to the Italian one. Reports, in the last few days, also say that ambulances and staff aren't quite aware of what to do, and masks and other articles are also in low supply.

The media here is also being fiercely mocked on social media for their desperation that there's no positive cases in Portugal. For now.

[Lourdes]

The virus now has a presence in Sub-Sarahan Africa:

https://twitter.com/seunokin/status/1233209119248723968

[Middle-aged Europe]

A spokesperson of the German health ministry has said that the number of confirmed infections has risen to 60. The infections have now also spread to the states of Hesse and Hamburg.

There's an ongoing debate whether Berlin should cancel this year's ITB, the world's largest tourism trade fair, which is supposed to start next week.

[parochial boy]

The news coming out of Italy is totally bizarre. Apparently they’re testing basically everything that moves to try and work back to the first case, which is why the numbers have shot up, rather than because hundreds of new people are actually falling ill every day; the 17 fatalities all had serious underlying conditions; and only about half the 800 people who have tested positive are even « sick for real » (weird term?)

The WHO also seem to be coming to the conclusion that, factoring unreported but subsequently identified cases, the real mortality rate is around 1%

[Tender Branson]

Stupid hysteria.

Let the virus run its course.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Stupid hysteria.

Let the virus run its course.

Even at a 1% mortality rate it's still ten times as deadly as your regular flu. I would agree that buying your local supermarket empty right now might be an overreaction. On the other hand, I would also regard a bit callous to say: let the old people die because that's what Darwin intended and I'm not old myself so it doesn't concern me anyway. I mean when a wave of the normal flu gets around we don't "let it run its course" either. We what we do then is to recommend that sick, pregnant and old people get a vaccination and everybody else is supposed to wash their hands. And this is ten times as worse as the flu so you souldn't exactly wonder if the measures taken against it are also ten times as severe.

Will you personally die from the Coronavirus? Probably not.
Are the measures taken by the goverment(s) an overreaction? Same answer as above.

[Tender Branson]

Still don't get the hysteria ...

They are even cancelling major sports events because of it.

This is not the plague like during the Middle-Ages. It's just a random flu virus that can be treated by staying home in bed for a week with Aspirin C.

Old people are dying yes, but they are still much more likely to die by a stroke or heart attack or cancer.

Europeans are now running around in the streets with face masks (!) on.

I sometimes wonder if this virus was a plot by the Chinese to promote the wearing of face masks in Europe ...

[dead0man]

do people not understand that the masks are supposed to be for the sick?

[politicallefty]

do people not understand that the masks are supposed to be for the sick?

That's true for the regular surgical masks, yes. However, the N95 respirators can be beneficial if you know how to fit them, but most people will find them uncomfortable as they're hot and they make it somewhat harder to breathe. The CDC only recommends them for health professionals in contact with the infected.

[dead0man]

do people not understand that the masks are supposed to be for the sick?

That's true for the regular surgical masks, yes. However, the N95 respirators can be beneficial if you know how to fit them, but most people will find them uncomfortable as they're hot and they make it somewhat harder to breathe. The CDC only recommends them for health professionals in contact with the infected.

indeed, regular folk shouldn't be buying those up either.

[Middle-aged Europe]

It's just a random flu virus...

That's not true.

While Coronavirus has flu-like symptoms it isn't the flu. They're not even in the same virus family, since influenza viruses all belong in the family of the Orthomyxoviridae, while the Coronovirus is from the family of the Coronaviridae.

... that can be treated by staying home in bed for a week with Aspirin C.

That's at least partially incorrect.

While milder cases of the infection may be treated that way, there are still more severe iterations of the infection. And while you don't necessarily die from these either it still isn't really a fun ride for you. See this recent Guardian article, "‘To hell and back’: my three weeks suffering from coronavirus":

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/29/to-hell-and-back-my-three-weeks-suffering-from-coronavirus

Dr. Li Wenliang, the so-called Coronavirus whistleblower from China, also died from the disease, aged 33.

Old people are dying yes, but they are still much more likely to die by a stroke or heart attack or cancer.

1) Do you have a source or statistic which substantiates the claim that old people are "are still much more likely to die by a stroke or heart attack or cancer"? I'm not regarding that statement as incorrect per se, because I haven't such a statistic at hand right now mself. Considering that you post contained other incorrect information I'm taking it with a grain of salt though.

2) The governments and the WHO may not be able to stop people from dying of a heart attack, but they may able to stop people from dying of the Coronavirus and if they're capable of doing so shouldn't they do it?

3) Old people are not the only ones dying from the Coronavirus. People with preexisting conditions and people with weakened immune systems (which includes hospital employees, like the aforementioned Dr. Li Wenliang) do as well. And if you happen to have real bad luck (granted that's extremely unlikely) you die when neither of these conditions apply to you.

Europeans are now running around in the streets with face masks (!) on.

In Berlin they don't. Maybe in Milan they do. But they Milan isn't the whole of Europe.

The thing about face masks is that most of them don't protect you from infections anyway. If anything, what they do is to keep you from infecting other people.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think to recall that they're worn in Asia so frequently because in Asian culture it is considered extra-rude or something if you're not super-careful about not infecting other people with illnesses.

[Tender Branson]

A first case of Coronavirus has been confirmed here in Salzburg, in my district.

In the town of Fusch.

2 miles away from where I live.

[President Johnson]

Germany is now up to 66 cases, most still in NRW. Even a number of kids are affected.

Bad enough is that one of the patients connected with the "Göppingen cluster" actually lives in my county. According to local press, the 28 year old man is a CDU member who recently gathered at a local party meeting. As a result, all four candidates running for the CDU's nomination for the state legislature in the 2021 state election are under quarantine at home for precaution. County officials have expanded their testing capabilities, even though no further confirmed cases so far. The infected CDU member is reported to be in good shape, as a are most other patients (the 47 year old man's condiction from NRW is still critical, but he's more stable than in recent days).

When we went to Aldi super market yesterday, there were some empty shelves, especially frozen food and noodles. I think it's an exaggeration, but my wife insisted to buy some additional stuff for now. So practically, we should stay home for about a week now.

[urutzizu]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think to recall that they're worn in Asia so frequently because in Asian culture it is considered extra-rude or something if you're not super-careful about not infecting other people with illnesses.

It is, but the vast majority of people do not really wear them because of of anything related to diseases at all - rather because of bad air quality and Yellow dust.

When we went to Aldi super market yesterday, there were some empty shelves, especially frozen food and noodles.

I noticed nothing of the like in Stuttgart itself yet, though I have a feeling the Virus has somewhat been contained due to schools being shut during the holidays. I expect a slew of new cases from Monday when Children come back from their Vacation.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Coronavirus claims the first Iranian MP. Can't really find which side this guy sided.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Well, seems like Corona beer is getting a lot of free promotion.