International COVID-19 Megathread

[Velasco]

Spain, last update

28572 infected (officially)
1720 dead
1785 in ICUs
2575 recovered

Spain has purchased 640k test kits

[Lechasseur]

https://amp.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/coronavirus-une-plainte-contre-edouard-philippe-et-agnes-buzyn-a-ete-deposee-20200321

A criminal complaint has been filed by a group of doctors and other healthcare professionals against Prime Minister Edouard Philippe and former Minister of Health and current LREM nominee for Paris City Hall Agnès Buzyn for "mensonge d'État", "lies by the state" in English, due to their handling of the coronavirus pandemic (basically by hiding how serious it was and not doing anything about it until it was already basically too late).

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Confirmed: 563
Suspected: 1047
Dead: 7

Young Australians have been criticised for not enacting social distancing recommendations.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-22/coronavirus-nsw-victoria-act-shutdown-non-essential-services/12079124

As a result, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has now cracked down by closing all:

• Pubs;
• Clubs;
• Restaurants;
• Gyms;
• Churches;
• Sporting Venues.

to contain the virus. All non-essential services will be closed over the next 48 hours.

Western Australian border will be shut tonight, and people who don't obey the social order may be arrested and charged. The WA Premier suggested putting quarantined patients on Rottnest Island.

5-6 International Cruise Ships will enter Fremantle port over the next week.

Closing down said establishment is a right step and should've been taken already. The problem is people are going to violate social distancing anyway, meeting at homes or outdoors (Warsaw boulevard were pretty much packed recently, for example), unless you have strict curfew instituted.

[Silent Hunter]

Agree. Evidence from mobile data in Lombardy suggested 40% violation of the 400 metres from your home rule.

Some places are imposing curfews already.

[Lechasseur]

https://www.20minutes.fr/politique/2745571-20200322-coronavirus-vague-previent-emmanuel-macron-journal-dimanche

The French minister of health estimates that the true number of infected people is somewhere between 30 000 and 90 000 in France, but most of these people either don't have symptoms or have very light ones so they haven't been tested.

[DabbingSanta]

Some maps I made this morning based on the latest data from Worldometers. Countries with higher death rates could be a result of (a) underreporting of cases, (b) substandard quality of health care, or (c) increased elderly or high risk population, or perhaps a mix of all three.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Stamp's Law of Statistics.

[President Johnson]

Update: Germany will not issue a complete lockdown similar to Italy or Spain, but Chancellor Merkel and heads of state government have agreed to impose a so-called "contact ban". That means no more than two people are allowed to gather in public space, excluding families who live in the same household.

I think that's actually a good solution. Scientists in recent days warned a total lockdown would cause other problems. They argued people should be allowed to get out and breathe fresh air. I'm glad this is still possible. We were compelled to stay home the whole Saturday because of heavy rain. Today I feel much better after a two hour walk in the sunshine.

[CumbrianLefty]

Countries with *still* no official cases include - DPRK, Myanmar, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan.

And if you believe all that.......

[Good Habit]

Countries with *still* no official cases include - DPRK, Myanmar, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan.

And if you believe all that.......

Syria, Libya and Yemen definitely have even worse problems, so there is probably no testing. Myanmar, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan - not very believable, probably also no testing...
The only one that I might actually buy is the DPRK - borders were already closed completely as early as January, all air travel suspended. And the parts of China close to the border are among those least affected in China (there is no country in Europe with so few cases as those chinese provinces...) - so who knows..

[Velasco]

Stamp's Law of Statistics.

If governments were keen to have some homogeneous tempate to collect statistics, the comparative diagrams would be much more beautiful. But every one goes in its way

[DabbingSanta]

Countries with *still* no official cases include - DPRK, Myanmar, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan.

And if you believe all that.......

https://www.businessinsider.com/almost-200-north-korean-soldiers-died-coronavirus-2020-3

[DabbingSanta]

Stamp's Law of Statistics.

If governments were keen to have some homogeneous tempate to amass statistics, the comparative diagrams would be much more beautiful. But every one goes in its way

Make of that what you will, these things are a little hard to track

[Tirnam]

651 deaths in Italy, still an horrible number, but that is down from 793 yesterday.
Also the number of cases reported is also down, from 6,557 to 5,560.
Wa can only hope that this is the beginning of the trend, that the epidemic has peaked in Italy.

[President Johnson]

Breaking: Angela Merkel puts herself into self-quarantine for a week after having contact with an infected doctor. Her press secretary stated she will be be tested more than once over the next few days.

[Landslide Lyndon]

Greek government officially imposes a total lockdown.

https://news.gtp.gr/2020/03/22/covid-19-greece-goes-into-lockdown/   

[FrancoAgo]

news: in Italy you can only leave your municipality for work or for health or emergency reasons
 

[Velasco]

Stamp's Law of Statistics.

If governments were keen to have some homogeneous tempate to amass statistics, the comparative diagrams would be much more beautiful. But every one goes in its way

Make of that what you will, these things are a little hard to track

Also, the evolution is not homogeneous. China is in a downward arc, while the USA are still in a preliminary stage. So yes, these things are a little hard to track and possibly not ready for comparative analysis

[SunSt0rm]

Still lots of people in the Netherlands are still going outside, because of the nice weather. Lockdown is imminent next week seeing the cases and deaths are increasing at a fast pace.

Next week its going to be hard. Italy will surpass China in cases in 4 days and US will probably surpass China by the end of the week. European countries will go to the Italy scenario

Timeline cases so far by country
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbn4noA_0YU

[Tender Branson]

My state, Salzburg, has doubled the daily testing capacity to 500 - starting today (by tasking a private lab with the additional tests).

Therefore, a big jump in cases has been reported here today.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Update: Germany will not issue a complete lockdown similar to Italy or Spain, but Chancellor Merkel and heads of state government have agreed to impose a so-called "contact ban". That means no more than two people are allowed to gather in public space, excluding families who live in the same household.

I think that's actually a good solution. Scientists in recent days warned a total lockdown would cause other problems. They argued people should be allowed to get out and breathe fresh air. I'm glad this is still possible. We were compelled to stay home the whole Saturday because of heavy rain. Today I feel much better after a two hour walk in the sunshine.

I personally try to take a walk as frequently as possible. It's safe to do in parks and green areas by the Vistula river, close to where I live. Otherwise I'd go totally insane.

If all people were acting responsibly, no lockdowns would be needed. Unfortunately you'll always have a certain amount of idiots, and because of them it'll spread more and we may end up in lockdowns after all.

[Clarko95 📚💰📈]

Sweden's Prime Minster Stefan Löfven will address the country tonight live. Excepting the 2018 debates, where all party candidates addressed the nation live, this will be the first speech of this kind since the murder of Anna Lindh in 2003.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Update: Germany will not issue a complete lockdown similar to Italy or Spain, but Chancellor Merkel and heads of state government have agreed to impose a so-called "contact ban". That means no more than two people are allowed to gather in public space, excluding families who live in the same household.

I think that's actually a good solution. Scientists in recent days warned a total lockdown would cause other problems. They argued people should be allowed to get out and breathe fresh air. I'm glad this is still possible. We were compelled to stay home the whole Saturday because of heavy rain. Today I feel much better after a two hour walk in the sunshine.

Yeah, it's probably the least bad option.

The Bavarian solution was complately insane IMO, because it basically required you to have a family (or other kind of flatmate) if you wanted to have any face-to-face contacts with familiar people in the coming weeks (months?). Persons who are living alone and who either have no job or work from home were put into solitary confinement. That's unworkable in places like Berlin where more than half the population is living alone in their appartments.

[Lechasseur]

https://www.lalibre.be/debats/opinions/depuis-hong-kong-je-suis-ahurie-d-entendre-les-autorites-continuer-d-affirmer-que-le-masque-ne-sert-a-presque-rien-5e7728699978e201d8c94b71?fbclid=IwAR3r-0aYUvny7C1cJKyP7r4twLnhMpJiPqBjS-69ZIbVFmqpDnU-0SJlzYs

Very interesting. This article is a must read imo. You should all Google Translate it.

According to this French journalist in Hong Kong, Asia managed to contain the virus NOT THROUGH LOCKDOWN but THROUGH WEARING MASKS.

[Middle-aged Europe]

According to this French journalist in Hong Kong, Asia managed to contain the virus NOT THROUGH LOCKDOWN but THROUGH WEARING MASKS.

Yeah, I heard one before (plus, extremely thorough tracking of early infections based on the experiences they had gained from the previous SARS and Swin flu epidemics).

Problem is, there is a huge face-mask gap between Asia and Europe/America.