2019–20 Coronavirus Pandemic (COVID-19) Thread

[SitTwizzle]

Here it is. (I was expecting confirmations from healthcare people.) After two months of refusing then postponing massive tests (300.000/week) proposed for cheap by veterinary services, which would have avoided thousands of deaths and many more lung sequels, French government, probably alarmed by the steep decline in the number of cases which may force it to lift the extreme measures of confinement it seems to expect to last till a vaccine is on the market, started last week to test even more massively than previously proposed (700.000 tests per week, which is approximately as much as Russia, and half what US do). Surprise for some : in spite of these massive tests, the contamination numbers keep dwindling. In fact it is easy to explain : the first target was healthcare workers, and I dare say, with neither masks nor tests nor possibility of staying home with mild symptoms, by the end of March practically all of them had already been exposed to the virus, either destroying it immediately with their T-cells, or developing antibodies which are still active; the very few still contaminated last week, being probably a mix of the remnant of the last contaminated who still have some virus, of the new interns who had not been in contact with the virus yet and got it somehow, and of people who had good T-cells in their previous contacts with the virus, but are weaker now and caught the disease.

As to the effects on lifting confinement, it is so unclear yet, I am expecting clear guidelines by Sports minister Roxana Maracineanu in the next days.

[liv]

I had the joy of experiencing my first Covid19 testing the other day. It was definitely *an experience!* They go up so high with that swab that I felt like they cleaned out my sinuses and were heading to my brain. And then my ears hurt all day afterwards. Because I work in Long Term Care, which is where the majority of deaths have occurred in Ontario, it was determined by the province that all workers in the Home be tested and so we all had to go to public health for our tests and submit happily to those tests....or not, LOL!! We got news today that very single one of us tested negative which would explain why we've had no cases in our Home. They are in the middle of testing every single one of our Home's residents now. Some have submitted easily and others have put up quite the fight, lol!!  But, so far, so good!

[Figure_Frenzy]

I only sew to mend my clothes ...and only by hand at that too But LET IT BE KNOWN that last weekend I hand sewed a cloth face mask out of old t shirt! This is like... THE VERY FIRST GARMENT ITEM I HAND SEWED MYSELF aishqjdiwjdlqdgbdhjdkd

 

 

@liv so glad to hear that your (and the rest of your colleagues') test result turned out negative! Stay well and safe, all of you 

[SitTwizzle]

47 minutes ago, liv said:

I had the joy of experiencing my first Covid19 testing the other day. It was definitely *an experience!* They go up so high with that swab that I felt like they cleaned out my sinuses and were heading to my brain. And then my ears hurt all day afterwards. Because I work in Long Term Care, which is where the majority of deaths have occurred in Ontario, it was determined by the province that all workers in the Home be tested and so we all had to go to public health for our tests and submit happily to those tests....or not, LOL!! We got news today that very single one of us tested negative which would explain why we've had no cases in our Home. They are in the middle of testing every single one of our Home's residents now. Some have submitted easily and others have put up quite the fight, lol!!  But, so far, so good!

Congratulations to all of you!

You must have been quite prudent as, your residents being all safe (from Covid-19), either none of you have ever had the virus, or you have complied very thoroughly with safety protocols.

[liv]

I'd like to think we all complied thoroughly with the safety protocols and continue to do so. Now that we all tested negative some people are starting to question how long we have to continue following all the protocols because it is becoming tiring... but testing negative means you were negative on that day, at that time, and it could change once you go food shopping or don't quite reach that one spot on your thumb while washing hands after filling your car with gas etc.. When we are discussing things I always remind them that we are *so far so good,* but we just have to keep being good a little bit longer.  It's not that hard a thing to do especially when you look at what could potentially happen if you don't.  But, I guess people hear phrases like *we could be doing this for another 2 years* and it becomes frustrating.

[river]

3 hours ago, liv said:

I had the joy of experiencing my first Covid19 testing the other day. It was definitely *an experience!* They go up so high with that swab that I felt like they cleaned out my sinuses and were heading to my brain. And then my ears hurt all day afterwards. Because I work in Long Term Care, which is where the majority of deaths have occurred in Ontario, it was determined by the province that all workers in the Home be tested and so we all had to go to public health for our tests and submit happily to those tests....or not, LOL!! We got news today that very single one of us tested negative which would explain why we've had no cases in our Home. They are in the middle of testing every single one of our Home's residents now. Some have submitted easily and others have put up quite the fight, lol!!  But, so far, so good!

 

I'm having mine done tomorrow (no fever, but I work in healthcare and have developed a cough and mild shortness of breath) and well... I guess it's best to know what I'm getting into ahead of time.

[yude]

"Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday evening justified extending the state of emergency nationwide until May 31 but vowed to gradually relax some restrictions to resuscitate the economy."

 

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/05/04/national/japan-shinzo-abe-extends-state-of-emergency-coronavirus/#.XrDLhZ77TIU

 

Basically it means that there are 13 prefectures designated as "special alert prefectures" which still need strict restrictions, but the rest of the prefectures will be allowed to loosen their rules. 

 

"The government's request to slash face-to-face contact by 80 percent in those prefectures, which include Tokyo, Osaka, Aichi, Hokkaido, Kyoto and Hyogo, will stay in effect. But public facilities such as parks and museums might be allowed to reopen as long as sufficient social distancing measures are in place and the facilities are thoroughly disinfected. In the rest of the prefectures, the government will still request that the public avoid cross-prefectural travel but will relax some of its rigid standards."

 

I wonder if the ice rinks are included in "public facilities", maybe it will depend on the rule of each prefecture. For your information, Miyagi is not included in "special alert prefectures" and Sendai city has 65 infected patients in total so far, but 55 have already left the hospital and no one passed away. (https://www.city.sendai.jp/kikikanri/kinkyu/200131corona2.html)

 

(My prefecture is in the list of "special alert prefectures" so I will keep living the same as I do now. By the way, my family has not received two facial masks from the government yet  )

[rockstaryuzu]

3 hours ago, river said:

 

I'm having mine done tomorrow (no fever, but I work in healthcare and have developed a cough and mild shortness of breath) and well... I guess it's best to know what I'm getting into ahead of time.

Yikes, I hope the test comes back negative and you're fine. I would not want to see you get sick with this. Nor anyone else, for that matter.

[Sombreuil]

None of my family or close friends has been ill yet, but among acquaintances ( retired colleagues, neighbours, people at work) three people have died and two have been ill.  There’s a lot of speculation about the last big local sporting event before lockdown to which some people are attributing a spike in infection figures in the relevant period after, which makes me think they will be extremely cautious about bringing sports back.  I think about the 250,000 people from all over the country, and abroad who attended the big race meeting at the Cheltenham Festival just before lockdown - it would be difficult to trace the potential spread from that.  I miss the skating and will miss the Olympics, but it is only sport and shutting down the pandemic must be more important.

[TallyT]

11 hours ago, river said:

 

I'm having mine done tomorrow (no fever, but I work in healthcare and have developed a cough and mild shortness of breath) and well... I guess it's best to know what I'm getting into ahead of time.

 

Will keep fingers crossed you turn out to have something else, something harmless...

[mercedes]

17 hours ago, liv said:

I had the joy of experiencing my first Covid19 testing the other day. It was definitely *an experience!* They go up so high with that swab that I felt like they cleaned out my sinuses and were heading to my brain. And then my ears hurt all day afterwards. Because I work in Long Term Care, which is where the majority of deaths have occurred in Ontario, it was determined by the province that all workers in the Home be tested and so we all had to go to public health for our tests and submit happily to those tests....or not, LOL!! We got news today that very single one of us tested negative which would explain why we've had no cases in our Home. They are in the middle of testing every single one of our Home's residents now. Some have submitted easily and others have put up quite the fight, lol!!  But, so far, so good!

I've only done the blood test last week(to check for anticorps i guess)since i work in healthcare as well and i'm negative as well,but i've seen testing done with the swab and yep they tend to dig pretty high ....glad you're fine !

14 hours ago, river said:

 

I'm having mine done tomorrow (no fever, but I work in healthcare and have developed a cough and mild shortness of breath) and well... I guess it's best to know what I'm getting into ahead of time.

fingers crossed !!

 

Here we started going out for training (and professional athlets can train individually as well )so today i went for a small run ...it's pretty hot already and the parks are full of people which scares me a lot....lots of groups of teenagers of course and it's scary because they rarely respect social distancing.

let's hope we won't go back to square one n 2 weeks.

[river]

@liv I'm pretty sure they think COVID-19 "lives" in the brain from how far up they go. My nose still doesn't feel right. Sounds like it was the same for you?

 

Thanks for the well-wishes, everyone. So far, so good. I feel so lazy staying home from work for what I'm pretty sure is just a cold. (That is NOT DONE in my field.) But from a public health standpoint, it's the right thing to do.

[rockstaryuzu]

2 hours ago, river said:

I feel so lazy staying home from work for what I'm pretty sure is just a cold.

Milk it for all it's worth and get some good rest while you have the chance!

[Songster01]

@river I hope your nose feels normal again soon and it turns out to be a mild cold.   

 

@liv I'm glad you tested negative and your facility is clear of COVID-19.  I hope it may remain so until a vaccine is made accessible.  I can only imagine the stress everyone in LTC has been going through. 

 

Some Canadian updates: 1) the Minto Summer Skate in late July, sponsored by Skate Ontario, has been cancelled: https://skateontario.org/sectionals-series-1-minto-summer-skate-cancelled-due-to-covid-19/

On Wednesday evening at 7:00pm ET Skate Ontario will hold a Facebook Live to talk about the upcoming season. No idea if they will also address the status of the North York Summer Skate, which takes place in August.  Personally I hope they cancel it as it's always been busy with many participants, but at the very least they should consider not permitting fans/cutting the number of people who can accompany minors, etc.  If NYSS is cancelled I'm not sure if ON and QC skaters will have a chance to try out their programs before the JGP begins (assuming that isn't cancelled too, which it may very well be), unless any events in other provinces are willing to take them.  OTOH that may not be a good idea since ON and QC by far have had the worst outbreaks of COVID-19.  I certainly would not blame other provinces from telling us to stay away for the foreseeable future.  And again, I'm not sure if those provinces will also cancel summer skating events.

 

2) the Spruce Meadows show jumping event in Calgary in mid-September is cancelled https://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/article-spruce-meadows-cancels-masters-show-jumping-event-because-of-covid-19/?cmpid=rss&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

I'm keeping my eye on September sports events in Canada to see if there is a trend to cancel or postpone, which is why I mention this event here.  I would imagine it attracts an international (cross-border) audience like ACI does, though it sounds like it has a far larger audience than ACI.

 

3) Today the mayor of Toronto basically said he wouldn't bet on the CNE taking place in Toronto this summer.  It's definitely something big enough to warrant cancelling early.  It's a domestic event that attracts many people, and I hope they do cancel.  I'm not sure a summer fair is a place you can expect good social distancing practices and if they did try to do that it might eat into potential profits so much as to make putting it on more of a liability.  Note: the CNE would end in early September, not long before ACI.

[Lunna]

4 часа назад, Songster01 сказал:

Some Canadian updates:

Thanks for the info! Is there some official date until gatherings/sporting events are cancelled by government or local officials for now? If not I'm not sure ACI can be cancelled until consulted with the ISU on the matter as it's a challenger and not just a local event and we all know how long the decision they can take. I wonder if they are considering to hold events without viewers (will depend on what major Feds will decide I guess).