Covid-19 pandemic

[Balderdasha]

I had exactly the same reaction to the "it'll all be over by Christmas" announcement, though I hadn't yet formulated it into such a pithy, amusing tweet.

[Balderdasha]

The number of new cases in the USA yesterday was the highest so far, 73,388. Highest not just for the USA, but for any country.

[Balderdasha]

Dominican Republic and Panama now have more than 50,000 cases and more than 900 deaths each.

[elguapo4]

3 deaths and 34 new cases in Ireland. Mainly younger people these days but the largest number of new cases since early June.

[Nocturnal Submission]

I don't get the impression that Europe is going to eradicate the virus. It looks like most countries will at best bump along with a low level of cases and fatalities, suppressing local outbreaks as best they can while they wait hopefully for an effective vaccine.

[ursus arctos]

Which would mean New Zealand, Vietnam, China and South Korea with indefinite quarantines

[Diable Rouge]

3 deaths and 34 new cases in Ireland. Mainly younger people these days but the largest number of new cases since early June.

Multiple reports of American tourists around Kerry, despite the 14-day quarantine.

[Incandenza]

Multiple reports of American tourists around Kerry, despite the 14-day quarantine.

Try and keep us away from the old country!

[The Red Max]

17 new cases, but no deaths in Scotland.
Numbers of new cases are fluctuating between a handful and just under 20, but apparently they're spread across the country rather than in a couple of 'hot spots'.
Is that good or bad, I can't decide.

[elguapo4]

Multiple reports of American tourists around Kerry, despite the 14-day quarantine.

It's a fucking joke, government claims that they can't stop them coming in but they have to voluntarily quarantine, who's going to do that on their holidays.

[S. aureus]

The number of infections per day has essentially tripled in San Mateo county over the past month, having been fairly constant for the 2 months before that.

[Satchmo Distel]

Has the UK government indicated how you can socially distance an audience in the Crucible Theatre, for sessions that can last over 4 hours? I can see how cricket is possible with member lotteries for tickets in distanced seats (but the season is already past midpoint already so it seems largely symbolic) but indoor sport just seems impossible given that spectators will want toilet breaks etc and there may be only one or two exits.

As in the US, there seems to be deliberate mixed messaging: masks compulsory in shops but you can nip down to the Crucible to get your face on the telly with no mask, even when twelve blokes are headed for the same toilet for a piss between frames.

[ursus arctos]

Take a look at the sumo thread for a more thoughtful approach to allowing spectators at indoor sport (though in a country that has done rather better with the pandemic, but has very much not eradicated the virus).

[Balderdasha]

The current global death toll of 597,904 has now exceeded the population of Western Sahara.

[Lang Spoon]

It's a fucking joke, government claims that they can't stop them coming in but they have to voluntarily quarantine, who's going to do that on their holidays.

Stop the fucking flights the spineless cunts.

[Lang Spoon]

Only good thing about this whole disaster is Stephen Donnelly will be fired as soon as he came into the job.

[elguapo4]

I'd forgotten what a useless shower of pricks Fianna Fail actually are. Bad as Fine Gael are, you get the feeling that they know what they're doing. Hopefully one good thing to come out of this crisis is their mutual obliteration.

[David Agnew]

Has the UK government indicated how you can socially distance an audience in the Crucible Theatre, for sessions that can last over 4 hours?

This is the easy bit. As long as they limit it to 100 people.

[Sam]

We're going to be slowly emerging, blinking, into the sunlight over the next couple of weeks. Well, not quite. We'll be allowed out for a walk between 6pm and 10am starting on Monday, which given the sun sets at around 6:15 at the moment means we still won't be getting much vitamin D. But things are going to start to open, with strict measures in place. Hair dressers will open on Wednesday, for example – and they'll be allowed one customer every two hours so they can do a full clean of the premises in between each one. Testing is going to be stepped up across the city, and the mayor of BA has appealed for people who've already recovered to donate plasma. And excitingly, Argentina has been picked to host a phase 3 trial of Pfizer's candidate vaccine.

I suspect that on the 2nd August, when this gradual first period of opening is currently set to run until, we'll be told we're heading back into a stricter lockdown. But we'll see.

[Diable Rouge]

The Irish green list will be much more conservative than the EU's, though hardly matters if both Aer Lingus and Ryanair run full schedules.

[Lang Spoon]

This is fucking insane. Why are there no hotels commandeered for quarantine as in New Zealand?

[Sporting]

Hair dressers will open on Wednesday, for example – and they'll be allowed one customer every two hours so they can do a full clean of the premises in between each one

Hardly worth opening.

[Balderdasha]

Another new high for the USA yesterday in terms of daily new cases, 74,987. It seems increasingly likely that the USA will reach 100,000 new cases a day at some point, or more.

[Balderdasha]

The UK has reached an ominous 666 deaths per million people. Still fourth in the world in that category behind San Marino, Belgium and Andorra. The top 8 in terms of deaths per million population are still all European countries, with Chile and the USA making up the final two top 10 places.

[Balderdasha]

Bangladesh has reached over 200,000 cases and 2,500+ deaths.