COVID-19 coronavirus update 11/03 - 13/03

The UK added 208 cases today and now has reported a total of 798 positive cases of COVID-19. We had tested 32,771 people as of 9am this morning.

The UK has reported a total of 11 losses of life.

Total cases are: England 491, Scotland 85, Wales 38 and Northern Ireland 29.

18 of the UK's positive testing cases have recovered.

Rep. Of Ireland have 43 cases.

The world has reported 144,031 cases and 5,397 losses of life. 70,920 people have already recovered.


UK NEWS:

Thursday's COBRA meeting came on the back of utter disaster in Italy and 2 waves of heavy COVID-19 infection occurring across the whole of Europe.
- We aren't going to bother testing people who are ill unless they get super ill. This is a bit naughty and means we will never have a true number. Shame as we started so well.
-This is going to happen
- We are only 4 weeks behind Italy (3 by my measure)
- Bothering of the NHS from now on should be reserved for people who genuinely NEED help. Don't ring 111 or your GP unless you require actual assistance. No quibbles or grumbles just now.
- If you have: a new continuous cough OR a high temperature (37.8 degrees or higher), you should stay at home for 7 days.
- Schools for now at least stay open, as we have a long way to go before this epidemic is over, and don't want to start too early. (Most UK children have only 2 weeks left before they break up for Easter.)
- You'll all no doubt be delighted with the news foreign school trips are barred. As Italy has now been a mess for 3 weeks, and the whole of western Europe is about to join them, I'm stunned anyone would even consider it.
- Older people and those with existing health conditions are advised they shouldn't go on cruises. Erm....yes.

Nicola Sturgeon spoke earlier, immediately after the COBRA meeting. In Scotland events with over 500 people are cancelled because of additional pressure on health services, but otherwise advice and restrictions are the same.

The UK woke up on Friday to discover not only are we feeling like a bit of an experiment, some of the world thinks so too. In case you didn't quite grasp what UK policy is, we're going to allow people to catch COVID-19 at a nice slow rate until everyone who will catch it has had it, never overwhelming the health services.
That's clearly a great idea, but a potentially impossible game to win, especially wearing a blindfold.

This year I'm working with Manchester Marathon to promote their Mancunian Miles project. The aim is simple, get people to bump up their physical activity and see if together we can walk enough extra miles for one lap all the way around the Earth before race day on Sunday 5th April.

Best of it is, ANYONE can join in, and you add as many or as few miles as you manage, but if you manage to complete a whole marathon distance then you can earn a certificate or even prizes to celebrate your achievement.


My partner and I are notoriously inactive. Since he had Meningitis and I had lots of exciting abdominal surgery, we've really been very lazy and got used to not being able to participate. That has to change now. We're both as well as we'll ever be and really should be building our health back up. And everyone can do with being a bit stronger and smoothing out the tummy cushion a bit.

COVID-19 Coronavirus UK And World News Update 09/03-11/03

The UK now has reported a total of 456 positive cases of COVID-19, and we have 8 losses of life on home soil (plus 1 on the Diamond Princess).

18 of the UK's positive testing cases have recovered. 27,476 people have been tested.

Total cases assumed to be: England 387, Scotland 36, Wales 13 and Northern Ireland 18 (based on news reports).

Rep. Of Ireland have 34 cases.

The world has 124,968 cases and 4,585 losses of life. 67,050 people have already recovered.

At the WHO conference today, Dr Tedros said "In the past two weeks, the number of cases of COVID19 outside Flag of China has increased 13-fold & the number of affected countries has tripled".
"WHO has been assessing this outbreak around the clock and we are deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction"
"We have therefore made the assessment that COVID19 can be characterized as a pandemic"
"There’s been so much attention on one word. Let me give you some other words that matter much more, & that are much more actionable:
Prevention.
Preparedness.
Public health.
Political leadership.
And most of all, People".


UK News

On television Tuesday morning Boris upset a huge portion of the population by mentioning the 'take it on the chin' approach for a second time. There is genuinely a MASSIVE debate here between business/economists and humanitarians/health workers. Letting everyone just catch COVID-19 will definitely speed up the epidemic and save trillions of $$$'s on the stock exchange, but it will easily kill around 3 times as many people. An article in The Lancet warned last week that world money is all built on such fragile loans and promises that countries will be faced with a choice. Save your economy, or save lives. Boris maintains the UK will keep a balanced mix.

COVID-19 Coronavirus UK And World News Update 07/03-09/03

The UK now has reported a total of 319 positive cases of COVID-19, and we have 4 losses of life on home soil (plus 1 on the Diamond Princess).

18 of the UK's positive testing cases have recovered. 24,641 people have been tested.

Total cases for England 290, Scotland 18, Wales 4 and Northern Ireland 7 (based on news reports).

Rep. Of Ireland have 21 cases.

The world has 111,784 cases and 3,893 losses of life. 62,722 people have already recovered.

Another milestone we didn't want as over 100 countries have now reported positive cases of COVID-19.


UK News: 

Rishi Sunak, UK Chancellor, has pretty much held out a blank cheque for the UK NHS. “I can say absolutely categorically the NHS will get whatever resources it needs to get us through this and to respond to the health crisis.”

A London tube worker has tested positive for COVID-19.

Shops and supermarkets, including Tesco, Boots, Costco and Waitrose, have started rationing products which are in big demand. Among rationed items are toilet rolls, paracetamol, hand sanitiser, anti-bacterial gels, wipes and sprays. Bleach, dried pasta, long-life milk, canned vegetables, water and children’s medication.
Remember - panic buying raises prices and creates shortages where there are none. You only need a couple of weeks worth of toilet roll, paracetamol, soup and/or noodles. Most students will find they already have this.

A milestone we didn't want to reach as the total number of cases in the world goes over 100k. The current total is now 104,094. Losses of life is 3,526. A massive 58,559 people have already recovered.

The total number of cases in the UK is now 206. There are currently 189 cases presumed to be in England, 11 in Scotland, 2 in Wales and 4 in Northern Ireland.

Rep. of Ireland now have 18 confirmed positive cases.

The UK

The UK were a bit late with their 2pm figures on Thursday, but they have revealed a shiny new chart and table with geographical location, plus a chart which is 24 hours behind showing number of cases in each local authority. They said Wednesday that they were going to release locations only once a week on a Friday, but have backtracked on that. It really wasn't a very popular suggestion, and if anything caused UK wide concern, which I don't think they were expecting.

Can you believe people are stealing hand sanitiser from the ends of beds when they visit people in hospital? Seriously why? You honestly think you really need it more than they do? Once you've removed it you can't even take it back. It's not just B&M who have run out, our NHS is in danger of running out too. SOAP AND WATER IS JUST AS GOOD. Handy handwashing guide from the World Health Organisation below.


I've praised the UK government so far, because actually they've done a surprisingly good job. We have been testing, tracking and notifying far, far better than many countries. I have been told today that we may have a temporary backlog on testing for lower risk individuals in my area at least.

I guess it was obvious we'd have a lot of people come forward for tests right now, but bear in mind the existence of COVID-19 doesn't mean every other bug and germ has taken a break. By Friday the UK had tested 20,338 people, of which 20,175 were confirmed negative and 163 were confirmed as positive. That's 0.8%. Your cough, for now at least, is probably not COVID-19.

The latest young fiction book sent to me for review by Matador is The Sapphire Society. A blend of modern day and fantasy set in the Faroe Islands, where it seems the water might be hiding more secrets than we could ever dream of...

The story revolves around 12 year old Savannah, who moves to the Faroe Islands with her family, to live in her Grandmother's old cottage. While moving her mother finds an old dull sapphire necklace that had belonged to her own mother, and gives it to Savannah.


There are clearly mysteries on the island and Savannah very quickly befriends local lad Rich, son of the wealthy businessman Mr Froodroy. She also meets a woman known by the children as The Doomed Widow. The Doomed Widow is Doreen, whose husband was lost at sea several years beforehand.

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates 3rd March to 12.30 gmt 5th March

The global total for COVID-19 positive cases is at time of typing 96.609, loss of life is 3,308 souls.

Outside China cases 16,179 / Loss of life 295

UK cases are currently 90 (6 Scotland, 1 Wales, 3 N. Ireland, 80 England). England's updates occur at 2pm GMT.


UK Updates:

Great news for workers and business - UK workers will receive Statutory Sick Pay from the first day off in the event of it being due to  COVID-19, rather than the 4th. This includes people self-isolating. It's still not enough to really live on, but it's got to be a huge relief to people on low incomes and with no built-in sick pay at work which would cover it.

Paying SSP, even to people self-isolating with no symptoms, is a vital part of slowing down the spread of COVID-19. It will allow people to take less risks and stay home from work without starving or losing their house. Slowing spread will always be top priority, even if we do end up with an epidemic.
While you have a manageable number of patients everyone can get full care and other departments of hospitals can run effectively. If you have thousands of people needing oxygen for the same 2 week period, they can't.

A Cake For The Gestapo is a children's novel set on Jersey in 1940, and we were sent a preview copy for review by Zuntold Publishing. Suitable for confident readers aged around 9+, as the book starts we are a couple of weeks away from the Nazi occupation, which lasted almost the entire war.

Our main characters are Joe, Spinner, Clem, Ginger and their original enemy, Percy the bully. They are a close-knit group of youngsters about to enter their teenage years with no certainties ahead.  The book travels with them for a year, as they are forced to grow up quickly, with the realities of war on their own doorstep.


The children at the beginning of the book are already far more adult than you'd like them to be. They have had to take on the role of carers, providers, housekeepers and support for their own parents. With the arrival of the German Army, they also become the resistance and defenders of their island and way of life.

The group attack the Germans in innocent, childish ways, like throwing berries and leading bees to attack them. You have the sense always that it's always a dangerous game they are playing, and they know that.

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates 1st to 3rd March

The global total for COVID-19 positive cases is (at time of typing 12 noon GMT 03/03/20)

World cases 92138 / Loss of life 3134
Outside mainland China cases 11,987 / Loss of life 191

New UK cases since last update are:

01/03 England 12 new cases - locations include Bury and Bradford (infected in Italy), Leeds (2 brought it home from Iran). Scotland has their first case in Tayside (imported from Italy)
02/03 England has 4 further cases - no prizes for guessing where all 4 imported it from. Yep, Italy. The patients live in Hertfordshire, Devon and Kent.

The total UK confirmed cases is now 40 (37 England, Wales, Scotland and N.Ireland 1 case each). Rep. Of Ireland has 1 case.


UK

Boris had an emergency COBRA meeting on Monday. The results of which are mainly obvious. They do expect it to spread and assert that "This country is very, very well prepared". (They actually rewrote their Pandemic plans in 2011 as far as I'm aware, so we actually do have a plan).

COVID-19 Coronavirus Update 28 Feb to 1st March

The global total for COVID-19 positive cases is (at time of typing 9.30GMT 01/03/20)

World cases 86980 / Loss of life 2979
Outside mainland China cases 7156 / Loss of life 109

The UK currently has 23 positive cases of COVID-19.

New UK cases since last update are:
1 UK case in Northern Ireland. Another traveller from Northern Italy - an adult who travelled from Dublin airport to Belfast.
2 more travellers from Italy
2 more cases in England - both travelled from Iran.
1st case in Wales - travelled to Northern Italy.
3 new patients in Berkshire, Hertfordshire and Gloucestershire. All 3 cases were imported from Italy and Asia.

Rep.of Ireland has it's first case, someone from the East side who travelled to Italy.


Final Luxury Cruise News:

The UK has lost it's first COVID-19 patient, a former passenger on the Diamond Princess. Another former passenger has also died, increasing the loss of life to 6. There are 705 passengers who tested positive for COVID-19 while on board, 10 are recovered. My best wishes that the rest of you are home safely before long.

The UK

An announcement this morning tells us the UK War Room is being dusted off and an updated Action Plan will be with us later this week.