COVID-19 Pandemic

[Phoenix]

All you need to know about COVID-19...

https://theconversation.com/au/topics/covid-19-82431

[Carlin]

1) Macedonia orders closure of all borders, Skopje airport
https://seenews.com/news/north-maced...airport-691050

Macedonia's government said that it has ordered the closure of all borders and Skopje International Airport as of March 17, aiming to contain the further spread of the coronavirus disease in the country.

The government said in a statement on Monday that all of the country's borders with neighbouring countries must be closed at midnight the same day.

The airport in Skopje is set to be closed within 48 hours, the statement reads.

2) US, UK coronavirus strategies shifted following UK epidemiologists' ominous report
https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/17/healt...udy/index.html

A study by UK epidemiologists predicts that attempts to slow, or mitigate -- rather than actively halt, or suppress -- the novel coronavirus could overwhelm the number of intensive care hospital beds and lead to about 250,000 deaths in the UK and more than a million in the United States during the course of the current pandemic.

The study, which has not been published in a peer-reviewed journal, was released on Monday by London's Imperial College COVID-19 Response Team, which says it is advising the UK government on its response strategy. The study says it used modeling that has informed the approach of the British government in recent weeks; on Monday, the government abruptly called on vulnerable and elderly Britons to isolate themselves for 12 weeks, and introduced a variety of social distancing and quarantine recommendations that days earlier seemed distant prospects. Also on Monday, President Donald Trump unveiled a 15-day plan to slow new infections in the United States, including more stringent recommendations about staying home and avoiding groups of 10 people or more, among other steps.

3) Ontario (Canada) hospitals must be prepared for 'rapid change of circumstances' as COVID-19 worsens: Elliot
https://www.cp24.com/news/ontario-ho...liot-1.4856525

Health Minister Christine Elliot says that the province needs to be “prepared for a rapid change of circumstances” in its hospitals as the COVID-19 outbreak worsens.

Elliot made the comment during a one-on-one interview with CP24 on Tuesday; just hours after Premier Doug Ford declared a state of emergency and ordered the closure of bars, restaurants that don’t offer takeout and a host of other venues.

“Our system is operating well right now but we do have a plan in place should the hospitals become very busy very quickly,” she said. “We have been fortunate so far that the vast majority of people who have tested positive have been able to be treated at home with self-isolation but we know we have to be prepared should that change and people require hospitalization and require ventilation equipment.”

There have been 186 cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Ontario so far, including nine new cases that were added to the tally on Tuesday morning.

Elliot said that the province has seen a “significant increase” in in the number of cases in recent days, proving that “further action” will be needed to “flatten the curve.”

[Carlin]

This is downright scary.

Italy now has more than 31,000 confirmed cases
From CNN's Nicola Ruotolo in Rome and Mia Alberti in London

Italy announced 3,526 new cases of the novel coronavirus today, bringing the country's total to 31,506, according to Angelo Borreli, chief of the Italian Civil Protection Department.

There were also 345 more deaths recorded today, bringing the total number of coronavirus deaths in Italy to 2,503, Borrelli said.

Here's what else Borrelli said:

192 more people recovered from the virus Tuesday.
There are 1,108 people in isolation with light or no symptoms
2,060 are in intensive care (10% of the cases)

[Risto the Great]

That's getting close to half of China's tally. Whatever Italy is doing, it's wrong.
But hey, the canals in Venice are clean.

[Carlin]

I don't know. I wonder if others are doing better but Italy, Spain, France all three from first case to lockdown - average 6-8 weeks.

I feel like Americans and Canadians are still not taking this seriously. Numbers have erupted in the U.S. just over the last couple of days.

[Gocka]

Originally Posted by Carlin15

I feel like Americans and Canadians are still not taking this seriously. Numbers have erupted in the U.S. just over the last couple of days.

Here are my observations on why the further west you go it seems the response is slower and slower.

-US, Canada, UK, Germany. The way of life in these countries is quite different to really most of the world. People and businesses are heavily leveraged and the cost of living is very high. Most people can't go more than a a paycheck or two without becoming completely broke. Governments in these countries realize this reality and are terrified to cause too much damage to the economy and have people out of a job for any period of time.

-These countries are also very democratic so the decision making is very spread out and uncoordinated. No one wants to be told what to do essentially by any one authority. Normally decentralized power and decision making is a good thing. In a crisis like this its much like war, you want all the soldiers to listen to the general and march to the same tune.

-Society in these generally very well developed and wealthy countries have never really dealt with a crisis of any sort let alone the total breakdown of all norms.

-Governments realize that any actions they take to mitigate the health impact will have an opposite and equal reaction economically. There is the real possibility that economic breakdown will cause more chaos than the virus.

I don't think its so much not taking the virus seriously as much as being stuck between a rock and a hard place, and having to choose between what type of disaster you want to initiate, health, or economic. Either one will have dire consequences and leaders will get blamed no matter what they do.

The US is throwing everything including the kitchen sink at the economy knowing full well its going to fall off a cliff. They are avoiding doing anything drastic on the virus, which will in turn make the health crisis worse and in turn still make the economy fall off a cliff despite their efforts. On top of that they are printing money like mad, have already reduced interest rates to 0%, and are at the point where they are literally planning to just hand out money. This is all before the real downturn has started. When the worst of it comes around they won't have anything left to try. They also risk severe currency devaluation. In 08 all we had was banks becoming cash strapped because of risky investments leading to a housing devaluation which wiped out a lot of peoples paper wealth. We didn't shut down the economy for months on top of bankrupting the government and devaluing our currency.

It could end up being the perfect storm that brings society to its knees.

[Stojacanec]

We will see what happens when winter sets in for the southern hemisphere and together with the north already a pandemic... Things will get worse before they get better.

[Carlin]

1) Macedonia expected to declare 'state of emergency'.

2) All 50 of the US's Governors have declared emergencies in their states and now many are starting to activate their Air and Army National Guard to help deal with the growing coronavirus pandemic.

3) Italy

i) Coronavirus deaths are so high in Italy that some places have a waiting list for burials and funerals are happening with no family members there:
https://www.businessinsider.com/coro...pile-up-2020-3

ii) Too many priests have died in Bergamo:
http://www.ansa.it/english/news/gene...00293029a.html

iii) 2,629 medical professionals infected in Italy:
http://www.ansa.it/english/news/2020...8b51e93db.html

iv) Some countries too fatalistic - Di Maio:
http://www.ansa.it/english/news/2020...66b46db45.html

4) Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Cases Dashboard:
https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/a...23467b48e9ecf6

[Carlin]

Stevo Pendarovski declares state of emergency.

[Carlin]

Italy reported 4,207 jump in cases, biggest single-day rise