Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now it’s Finnish-ed.

We still have time to mess this up!

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

I was promised a recession.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

The words do not have to be perfect.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

DeSantis transforms Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 Coronavirus / COVID-19 Coronavirus Update: Tuesday-Wednesday, August 4-5

COVID-19 Coronavirus Update: Tuesday-Wednesday, August 4-5

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NOT LIKE THAT YOU PREVERTS! –

An 84-year-old explorer who “nearly died” of coronavirus said releasing a beaver is “what kept me going”.

Robin Hanbury-Tenison OBE, from Cornwall, was honoured with releasing the first beaver on Bodmin Moor on Friday.

Sigourney the beaver was freed into the two-acre valley as part of a three-year flooding prevention scheme.

The Cornwall Wildlife Trust said beavers bring “lots of benefits” to flooding prevention.

Mr Hanbury-Tenison came out of hospital in May after seven weeks fighting coronavirus – five of them in an induced coma.

He said: “I nearly died but the thought of coming out and releasing a beaver was what kept me going.”

Reader Interactions

47Comments

  5. 5.

    Amir Khalid

    Malaysia’s daily numbers. 21 new cases. The good news is, we’re still in the single digits for local infection: six cases, all involving Malaysians: three from the new cluster in the area of northern Kedah which is under an enhanced movement control order, two in Sabah, and one in Johore. 15 cases from imported infection, also all involving Malaysians: 12 returning from Yemen, one each returning from Papua New Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire, and the UK. Hmm, Yemen. Cumulative total 9,023 reported cases.

    18 more patients recovered and were discharged, total 8,702 patients recovered: 96.4% of the cumulative reported total. Active and contagious cases being isolated/treated in hospital rose again to 193 patients; two are in ICU, neither is on a respirator.

    No new deaths since 31 July. The total remains at 125 deaths, 1.39% of the cumulative reported total and 1.42% of resolved cases.

  8. 8.

    YY_Sima Qian

    Yesterday, China reported 22 new domestic confirmed cases and 14 new domestic asymptomatic cases.

    Ürumqi in Xinjiang “Autonomous” Region reported 22 new confirmed cases, and 13 new asymptomatic cases. 9 cases in critical condition, and 18 in serious condition. There are currently 618 confirmed cases (614 in Ürumqi, 2 at Kashgar, and 1 each at Changji Prefecture and Xinjiang Construction Corps), and 122 asymptomatic cases (120 in Ürumqi, 1 each in Changji Prefecture and Xinjiang Construction Corps), plus 1 asymptomatic case exported to Shaoxing in Zhejiang Province. 10 confirmed cases have recovered and were released from hospitals, 5 asymptomatic cases were released from medical quarantine, 4 serious cases have stabilized to moderate. There are 16318 close contacts under quarantine and medical observation.

    Dalian in Liaoning Province reported 1 new asymptomatic case. The outbreak in Dalian has a total of 89 confirmed cases: 2 serious cases, 74 moderate cases and 13 mild cases; 39 are workers from the import seafood processing plant, 13 are their close contacts, 20 are residents of Dalian Bay sub-district, and 16 are close contacts of confirmed/asymptotic cases not directly connected to the plant, 1 has unclear source of transmission. The city also has 27 asymptomatic cases: 16 are workers from the import seafood processing plant, 2 are their close contacts, 6 are residents of Dalian Bay sub-district, and 2 are close contacts of confirmed/asymptotic cases not directly connected to the plant. Additionally, 6 confirmed and 9 asymptomatic cases exported to the rest of China.

    It appears the Dalian outbreak is winding down, although local authorities are still urging caution and vigilance, stating that the outbreak has not yet been fully controlled. The Urumqi outbreak is trending in a positive direction, but is surprisingly resilient in light of the strong response (mass lock down and screening shortly after the outbreak was detected).

    Meanwhile, Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province reported a new asymptomatic case today, an import from Kashgar in Xinjiang. The case traveled by flight and high speed rail from Kashgar to Hangzhou in mid-Jul., right around the time the Ürumqi outbreak was uncovered. However, Kashgar has only had 2 reported cases so far, either introduced from Ürumqi or a close contact. It is unknown if the exported asymptomatic case to Hangzhou is related to the two reported cases at Kashgar. If not, then it is evidence that COVID-19 may had been transmitting at low levels in the city. The city has been under lock down shortly after Ürumqi, and just embarked on mass screening of all residents, which seems a massive overreaction to a couple of introduced cases. The asymptomatic case exported to Hangzhou visited a local hospital for ophthalmological surgery on 8/4, and tested positive from standard pre-procedure RT-PCR test, and presented positive on IgM antibody. 463 staff in the ophthalmology department have been tested, all negative. 8 close contacts are under quarantine.

    Yesterday, China reported 5 new imported confirmed cases, 10 imported asymptomatic cases, 1 imported suspect cases:

    • Shanghai Municipality – 2 confirmed cases, a Chinese national returning from Singapore, and a Bolivian national coming from Bolivia
    • Beijing Municipality – 1 confirmed case, an Indonesian national, a family member of a previously identified imported confirmed case
    • Chengdu in Sichuan Province – 1 confirmed and 1 asymptomatic cases, both Chinese nationals returning from Singapore
    • Xi’an in Shaanxi Province – 1 confirmed and 2 asymptomatic cases, all Chinese nationals returning from the Philippines via Cambodia
    • Guangzhou in Guangdong Province – 2 asymptomatic cases, both Chinese nationals returning from Zambia
    • Shenzhen in Guangdong Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Hong Kong resident
    • Zhanjiang in Guangdong Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from the Philippines
    • Jiangsu Province – 1 asymptomatic case, location and case information not published
    • Fuzhou in Fujian Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Mexico
    • Chongqing Municipality – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Singapore

    Today, Hong Kong reported 85 new cases, 82 from local transmission, 33 of whom do not have clear source of transmission.

  10. 10.

    lowtechcyclist

    @neelkashkari says if the U.S. were able to lockdown for a month or 6 weeks “we could get the case count down” so testing was adequate to control #covid19

    It’s hard to see people getting behind another lockdown until they have damned good reason to believe that the government will use it to get the virus under control.

    IOW, forget about it until next year.  We’ve got another six months of this thing being out of control, and that’s all there is to it.  Thanks to the totally bonkers leaders of the Republican Party, including but hardly limited to governors like Ron DeSantis, Doug Ducey, Kim Reynolds, and Tate Reeves.

    The silver lining, such as it is, is that this is an opportunity for the Dems to show how widely and deeply the brain rot has infested the GOP. I can only hope they’re smart enough to push this message, because as essential as it is to defeat Trump, ‘Republican governance’ will remain an oxymoron well after he’s gone.

  12. 12.

    Bruce K

    Greece is spiking, badly: yesterday the government reported 121 new cases, most domestic, in the previous 24 hours. The reproduction number has risen to 1, which sounds bad.

    Officials are saying that they’re not going to go back to the lockdown where anyone going outside needed to register via SMS, but I have to assume that if things get worse, the government will have to tighten down.

  13. 13.

    Amir Khalid

    I don’t understand Ron DeSantis’ thinking. You need to have people test negative at the end of their isolation period before they can safely come back ro work.

  16. 16.

    OzarkHillbilly

    My granddaughter is in the Lindbergh school district, one whose board members have a decidedly rightward tilt. Months ago, they were proposing 3 ways for children to attend when schools reopen: Online only, in school attendance only, or a hybrid of the 2. Now they have eliminated the online and hybrid options because “not enough kids signed up for them.” (entirely possible in this trump enclave but so is blatantly lying about it because they just don’t want to spend the money)

    So my gd will be getting home schooled this year and about 2 weeks after Lindbergh schools open they will start closing again and the entire year will be fucked because the other options have been eliminated and I am betting any plan for what to do when the inevitable does happen are at best getting lip service only.

    I am not a fan of home schooling but in this situation, what other choice makes sense?

  17. 17.

    gkoutnik

    @OzarkHillbilly: 
    Forty year educator here, including lots of work with families considering and doing homeschooling. The quality of homeschooling varies about as much as you can imagine – some groups score better than anyone on all the tests all the way through; others… well, it’s pretty sad. And lots in between.

    Quality of homeschooling depends, in my experience on 1) commitment of parent and child(ren) and 2) resources available. So your grandaughter’s family needs your support and the support of your whole family, for starters. It’s important.

    Best wishes to the whole family. We welcomed our first grandchild a year ago and I still weep with joy just seeing a picture. If she had to homeschool, she’d get the best.

  20. 20.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @gkoutnik: Quality of homeschooling depends, in my experience on 1) commitment of parent and child(ren) and 2) resources available.

    I know a lot of teachers (2 sisters, several friends) and they work their asses off doing the best they can for their students (1 friend died 2 years ago from cancer and thousands of former students came to her visitation). Their commitment will be 100% and the resources they tap into will be what they think are at the top. They will do the best they can and we’ll see how it all shakes out. I am hopeful we can reach the “adequate” level.

  21. 21.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @raven: OK, now I’ve got to watch it again because for the life of me I’m drawing a blank. The horror, having to watch One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest a ninth time.

  22. 22.

    Ken

    @OzarkHillbilly: Sadly, if you’re right about what’s going to happen in the Lindbergh district, “adequate” homeschooling may be in the top 5% of education quality this year.

  23. 23.

    Wanderer

    In New Hampshire, as of August 3rd, test site personnel were informing patients results will take 11 days.

  24. 24.

    debbie

    These tweets are more saddening than usual. Absolute human stupidity will kill us all.

  26. 26.

    Robert Sneddon

    Scotland update — The National Records of Scotland (NRS) figures indicate seven people died in the week ending 2 August, a decrease of one from the previous week. This number is based on their death certificates mentioning COVID-19, not confirmed cases.

     

    Overall 64 new cases across Scotland have been reported since yesterday, with 36 of these in the Grampian health board area – though it is unclear if all of these are connected to the Aberdeen outbreak. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon confirms 54 cases are now associated with the Aberdeen cluster, up from about 32 yesterday. 191 close contacts have been contacted but this is expected to increase in the coming days, she adds.

     

    Aberdeen is being put under a renewed lockdown. All pubs, restaurants and the like are to close immediately and people in the Aberdeen area are being instructed not to travel unnecessarily or visit other people’s homes. No-one should travel to Aberdeen unless absolutely necessary.

  27. 27.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @raven: That’s it. I’m still gonna watch it again tonight. it’s been at least a year since the last time, so I’m overdue anyway.

  29. 29.

    JR

    There is an equipment-free isothermal assay that was developed by a group at Stanford. The basic idea is the same as the Abbott test but all you need is an incubator that holds temperature at 50 C, and half an hour. The output is colorimetric so it’s basically as simple as a pregnancy test.

    NEB sells it for $750 / 96 assays (you could probably stretch that amount). It could be manufactured even cheaper by any research lab capable of basic biochemistry. There’s no excuse not to have these kinds of tests everywhere at this point.

  30. 30.

    Sloane Ranger

    The UK government have introduced a new, more detailed website so I am able to provide more information than previously.

    Yesterday’s figures are as follows.

    The UK has a testing capacity of 338,413. 158,666 tests were processed yesterday of which 670 were positive.

    183 people were admitted to hospital yesterday with COVID-19,  making a total of 1153 currently being hospitalised. 77 of these are on ventilators. Numbers of deaths from COVID-19 yesterday was 89.

    The English region’s  most affected, from least to worst, are, South West, South East, London, East of England, West Midlands, East Midlands, North East, Yorkshire and Humber and North West. Lockdowns continue across large swathes of the North West.

  32. 32.

    Shalimar

    @Amir Khalid:  De Santis is thinking “only people with actual symptoms can be blamed on me, and the economy cratering under my watch would keep me from getting re-elected.” It’s really stupid, he’s basically claiming asymptomatic people can’t spread the virus, it will bite him in the ass as much as his dumbass victory lap in May has, but it’s very in keeping with the narcissistic, PR-driven way he has handled the crisis so far.

  33. 33.

    TS (the original)

    Australia’s Queensland will extend its border closure to New South Wales (NSW) and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) to halt the spread of coronavirus from south-eastern states.

    There were restrictions on entering Queensland & people simply came into the state by lying about where they had been, so the solution is to ban them all. Seems reasonable to me. Qld had zero cases for a large number of days (cannot remember the total) then 3 people came into the state from Melbourne & it started up again. I have no idea how you stop this when people simply lie about where they have been.

    @GovRonDeSantis
    has suggested that employees who test positive for the #coronavirus should be evaluated using a “symptom-based approach” to determine if they should return to work.

    This has to be the saddest thing I have read all week. How did Melbourne get such high numbers? In part because people went to work when they had the virus or when they were waiting for test results. Thus the level 4 shutdown, to stop them being their own worst enemy. That a Governor would suggest such a thing is insane.

  34. 34.

    Shalimar

    Many Florida Panhandle restaurants  are re-opening their dining rooms over the last week or so.  This after the director of the dominant local healthcare chain told the Walton county commission last week that it will be at least 2 months before they can secure tests which get results back quickly enough to be helpful.  I have no explanation for why they stayed closed for months and chose now as it is getting really bad to open back up again, but it is dozens of restaurants.

  36. 36.

    satby

    It’s going to be 250,000 dead by the time of the election. Maybe by then some of the assholes still refusing to wear masks will have had an up close and personal experience with covid and start behaving better, since they don’t care about anybody but themselves.

  37. 37.

    Balconesfault

    “The Trump administration’s plan to provide every nursing home with a fast COVID-19 testing machine comes with an asterisk: The government won’t supply enough test kits to check staff and residents beyond an initial couple of rounds.”

    Creating a market for the reagents specific to this test kit?

  38. 38.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    says if the U.S. were able to lockdown for a month or 6 weeks

    Why do the doctors bother with this, it’s already been shown that 20% of the population will refuse such an order just to be jackasses.

  39. 39.

    Sloane Ranger

    Just listened to a talk radio programme. The wife of an A&E nurse phoned in to say that people who had been told by their doctor that they should self isolate because they had COVID-19 symptoms were coming into A&E, lying to receptionists about their symptoms and not mentioning that they had already spoken to their doctor. They waited until seen by medical staff to tell the truth. When their test was found to be positive they were told to self isolate and they said they couldn’t afford to as they were self employed or sick pay was too low.

    So, not only were these people shedding their virus all over the other people in A&E and medical and support staff, they are wandering around serving in shops and restaurants, entering other people’s houses to fix plumbing problems etc.

    Of all the selfish, thoughtless people, these take the biscuit!

  40. 40.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @lowtechcyclist: Even with Biden as president it’s still going to be an uphill fight with the virus because of the idiots. It’s pretty much a guarantee that the hard right will refuse to comply with contact tracing and any vaccine while screaming about how much Biden hasn’t fixed Trump’s mess yet.

  42. 42.

    VOR

    @lowtechcyclist: It’s not just the Republican governors. In both Wisconsin and Minnesota, leadership in the local Republican parties are suing or threatening lawsuits over emergency powers and mask mandates issued by the Governor. In both states the Governor is a Dem while at least one chamber of the Legislature has an R majority. What part of global pandemic with nearly 160k US dead is unclear to these alleged people?

  43. 43.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    Why do the doctors bother with this, it’s already been shown that 20% of the population will refuse such an order just to be jackasses.

    Because there is no other way at this point for large parts of the US.

  44. 44.

    PaulB

    @Amir Khalid: it’s not quite as bad as it sounds. If you look at the full context, DeSantis’s position isn’t all that unreasonable. What he’s trying to say is that after you have your positive test, if you quarantine for 14 days and you are still asymptomatic, you can return to work.

    That’s actually pretty close to what both the CDC and the WHO say and in these days of limited testing capacity and 5 to 10 days before getting your test back, it’s an acceptable position.

    If you look at the full quote, though, it’s also pretty clear that DeSantis is parroting something he heard elsewhere and it comes across as somewhat incoherent. Hence, the confusion.

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