Coronavirus - worldwide spread and control

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Wonko said:
Doesn't evacuation slightly undermine the concept of a quarantine, the point of which is normally seen as to stop the infected, and the potentially infected, from spreading the disease?
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I think the US govt. is taking steps to protect their workers that are in danger of contracting it. Govt. is responsible for them. I am also thinking that they will be monitored for symptoms. Possibly wearing masks on flight, temperatures taken, etc. I think this virus is about to explode and they aren't taking chances.
 
China coronavirus spread is accelerating, Xi Jinping warns

The country is facing a "grave situation" Mr Xi told senior officials, according to state television.

The coronavirus has killed at least 41 people and infected some 1,400 since its discovery in the city of Wuhan.

Travel restrictions have already hit several affected cities.

And from Sunday, private vehicles will be banned from central districts of Wuhan, the source of the outbreak.

A second emergency hospital is to be built there within weeks to handle 1,300 new patients, and will be finished in half a month, state newspaper the People's Daily said. It is the second such rapid construction project: work on another 1,000-bed hospital has already begun.
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Underline mine.
 
Patient4Life said:
I went to a site called Flu Armour and bought 2 boxes of twenty N95 masks; NIOSH CDC approved masks. That should get me through a couple of weeks in a pandemic outbreak. Any longer than 2 weeks would be a problem. Can't afford more right now.

fluarmour.com
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I bought this kind of stuff during the last outbreak. Hoping I still have it stored in the loft
 
Esther12 said:
I don't think we really know, particularly as it's possible China had been understating the problem initially, meaning that more realistic recent figures look like a big upsurge. Unless you're in China it's probably not worth worrying about until we know more.
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It's especially hard to estimate the prevalence now they've discovered someone with an active infection but no symptoms of illness. It's therefore possible that people can spread it without even knowing they have it. I agree it's not worth worrying at the moment, specially when you think about the numbers dying of 'flu each year – usually no-one even remarks on that as a story.
 
Sarah94 said:
How bad is this compared to the swine flu in 2009?
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Much less deadly, but early estimates of the R factor (how effective the virus is at infecting hosts) seem very concerning. There are conflicting reports that place it around 2.5, some disputed ones at 3.8 or 2.8.

Spanish flu had a 1.8 factor, I think that's the highest, and I think SARS had 1.2, though of course flu viruses are much more lethal that coronaviruses. So it looks possible that there could be a massive pandemic with a "relatively" low mortality rate but that could stress medical resources to the point of degrading services on all other medical needs. Especially as it's flu season and the vaccine missed the mark, definitely not helping.

The biggest issue with coronaviruses is how many infected people display little to no symptoms. So the spread is very difficult to keep in check as it's extremely hard to quarantine infectious patients when it's difficult to identify them in the early stages. Hence, it seems, the full quarantines enacted in the provinces around Wuhan.

Hopefully a quick vaccine helps reduce the spread, especially in medical facilities, but the growth in just a few days is pretty concerning.
 
Wuhan coronavirus death toll rises to 56 as healthcare workers say medical supplies are running out

Fifty-six people have been killed by the novel coronavirus in China, health officials said on Saturday. Over 1,900 confirmed cases have been reported across the country.

China's state-run Xinhua news agency reported that 237 patients are in critical condition.
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Healthcare workers in the Chinese city of Wuhan say hospitals are running low on supplies as they treat an increasing number of patients.

The Chinese central government announced it would send more than 1,200 health workers — as well as 135 People's Liberation Army medical personnel -- to the city in an unprecedented effort to contain the spread of the virus.

Lunar New Year celebrations -- the country's most important holiday -- have been greatly impacted in Beijing, Hong Kong and other major cities due to the virus. Nearly 60 million people are under partial lockdown in the province of Hubei.
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"In terms of resources, the whole of Wuhan is lacking," one Wuhan-based healthcare worker told CNN by phone. This person said they were looking for more protective clothing, protective goggles and masks.

"It's really like we're going into battle stripped to the waist," one healthcare worker added, using a Chinese idiom that equates to "going into battle without armor".

One hospital staff member claims healthcare workers have resorted to wearing diapers to work so as to avoid having to remove their HAZMAT suits, which they say are in short supply. A doctor on her Chinese social media Weibo page described similar accounts at another Wuhan hospital.
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Underline mine. Also, this reads like a long trailer for a 70s tv sci-fi I woul have found unbelievable...at age 12.
 
https://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/jan/24/virus-hit-wuhan-has-two-laboratories-linked-chines/

"Asked if the new coronavirus may have leaked, Mr. Shoham said: 'In principle, outward virus infiltration might take place either as leakage or as an indoor unnoticed infection of a person that normally went out of the concerned facility. This could have been the case with the Wuhan Institute of Virology, but so far there isn’t evidence or indication for such incident.'”

I hope they'll have enough resources and staff left in the next weeks to make sure what's in the lab stays in there, too :nailbiting:

I'm not worried this is going to wipe out half of the planet or something, but with enough people being infected public safety/supplies/medical care/economy being seriously affected.

People also travel a lot more than during SARS 15yrs ago.
 
I heard an expert talking on the radio today, and he said if we had daily/hourly updates of the number of people catching and dying of seasonal flu around the world, we would have worldwide panic just like this. He was not belittling the danger, just trying to get people to have a bit of perspective on it. I don't think posting frequent updates of numbers on here is particularly helpful.
 
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Trish said:
I don't think posting frequent updates of numbers on here is particularly helpful.
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That's pretty much what the residents and businesses of Incline Village and the CDC said during the outbreak. And I would argue some of these patients will go into ME/CFS.
 
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