Today, the U.S. set a new record for new cases averaged over a 7-day period: 68,954. The previous high was 66,844, set on July 23. pic.twitter.com/eUcX9SHvN8
— The COVID Tracking Project (@COVID19Tracking) October 25, 2020
U.S. coronavirus cases & state maps: The country is edging closer to a quarter of a million COVID deaths. Meanwhile, more people have tested positive in the U.S. than anywhere else on Earth https://t.co/1UQhjOEwDw
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) October 25, 2020
This is unbelievable.
Mark Meadows on @CNNSotu: "We're not going to control the virus."
The Trump admin is finally clear about their #covid19 national strategy: capitulation.
— Leana Wen, M.D. (@DrLeanaWen) October 25, 2020
yeah, that's the thing.
the u.s. could have controlled things. even just running the standard playbook would have resulted, it seems, in a drastically better result.
instead we did nothing, then kept doing nothing, then stayed the course doing nothing https://t.co/GBbha4vOC0
— Gerry Doyle (@mgerrydoyle) October 26, 2020
An inadequate COVID19 response has likely resulted in 130k-210k avoidable deaths in the United States. If the Trump administration had acted quickly & effectively w/ a cohesive public health response 10s of 1000s would be alive. New Columbia Univ report https://t.co/G1LiFaadHO pic.twitter.com/cog9BpEqt9
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) October 25, 2020
ICYMI:
HHS halted a coronavirus ad campaign funded by $250M in taxpayer money that would’ve had Santa performers promote the benefits of a vaccine in exchange for early vaccine access ahead of the general public. The deal was Michael Caputo’s brainchild. https://t.co/qOaVx249h8
— Rebecca Ballhaus (@rebeccaballhaus) October 25, 2020
President of @FoxNews and several of the network’s top anchors have been advised to quarantine after being exposed to someone on a private flight who later tested positive for the #coronavirus, reports @nytimes. https://t.co/uZmSVOtFpV
— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) October 26, 2020
How it started How it’s going pic.twitter.com/TB3R7uGT2g
— Matt O'Brien (@ObsoleteDogma) October 26, 2020
"We will know whether a vaccine is safe and effective by the end of November, beginning of December"
US government scientist Dr Anthony Fauci tells #Marr once a Covid-19 vaccine is available, the challenge will be distributing it to those who need ithttps://t.co/KgSEipzrUB pic.twitter.com/kkay0Y6mQm
— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) October 25, 2020
======
Countries around the globe are battling rising coronavirus cases. What the World Health Organization is seeing is an 'exponential' global rise in incidence https://t.co/622qNFU5D9 via @medical_xpress
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) October 25, 2020
Italy imposes harshest #coronavirus restrictions since the spring lockdown. A second wave is sweeping throughout Europe https://t.co/R9mMTGzUNQ
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) October 26, 2020
BREAKING: Spain's prime minister declares a second nationwide state of emergency amid a surge of new coronavirus infections. https://t.co/4bhKaPeU6M
— The Associated Press (@AP) October 25, 2020
Berlin breaks up 600-strong party over Covid https://t.co/IOs05oiNEo
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) October 25, 2020
⚡ Russia confirmed 17,347 Covid-19 cases Monday, bringing its official number of cases to 1,531,224 and setting a new record for daily infections https://t.co/kZLE6GEVsQ
— The Moscow Times (@MoscowTimes) October 26, 2020
Iran's leadership has little room to impose severe virus restrictions that would damage an already fragile economy battered by U.S. sanctions — and thus stoke public anger. By @IsabelDeBre https://t.co/GjDImbxFE3
— AP Middle East (@APMiddleEast) October 26, 2020
"We're staying at home to protect ourselves… and to protect our families"
Meet the socially-distanced Muppets calming children's Covid fears in the Middle Easthttps://t.co/HrjQa2LmAm pic.twitter.com/59bGjT2P59
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) October 25, 2020
China tests entire city of Kashgar in Xinjiang after virus outbreak https://t.co/GBpw4KUaHP
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) October 26, 2020
China reports surge in symptomless COVID-19 infections https://t.co/q0B09VMFwJ pic.twitter.com/Mrg2hDagWW
— Reuters (@Reuters) October 26, 2020
Victoria in Australia sees first day without a new Covid case since Junehttps://t.co/ys87gBmhsR
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) October 25, 2020
Mexican authorities are attempting to avert another wave of coronavirus infections. https://t.co/WgJeXseYyI
— HuffPost (@HuffPost) October 26, 2020
======
Home tests could help in the fight against the coronavirus. So where are they? https://t.co/HSwtPCHjIr
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) October 25, 2020
Why false positives merit concern, too https://t.co/d0J96wMaQs
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) October 26, 2020
Universal mask usage can save up to 130k US lives. That means having been masked from Sept 22, 2020 & continued thru February 2021 nationwide. Masking up avoids the need for stricter containment measures. From the journal Nature https://t.co/6yylYO4A3D pic.twitter.com/mT00sqcqg6
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) October 25, 2020
Oxford COVID-19 vaccine trials produce robust immune response in elderly: FT https://t.co/WqmgMmxwwJ pic.twitter.com/XlmQ1w1QzI
— Reuters (@Reuters) October 26, 2020
South Korea pharma Celltrion's COVID test gets U.S. emergency use authorisation https://t.co/Is6y8J1cJn pic.twitter.com/sNU46ooDQ1
— Reuters (@Reuters) October 26, 2020
======
"Our lives are on the line." Anxiety increases as virus cases rise once again in communities across the U.S. The nation came close to back-to-back record daily infection rates on Friday and Saturday. https://t.co/EcmN3dhrQ5
— The Associated Press (@AP) October 26, 2020
Trump keeps saying that various states with Democratic governors – Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and others – are "shut down" or "closed."
But they are not. A quick breakdown of what is actually happening there: https://t.co/tQbHmCRPlm
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) October 25, 2020
Record numbers of daily coronavirus infections are being reported in 6 states, including Ohio & Illinois https://t.co/Lze84tJRNf
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) October 25, 2020
Putting a sharper point on it:
Trump repeatedly claims testing increases cases. That is, of course, absurd.
Governors who listen to him and suppress testing are actively driving the spread of COVID.
Testing doesn’t increase cases. It finds them.
Not testing increases cases. https://t.co/gPaWc0HLar
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@TheRealHoarse) October 25, 2020
20% positivity rate in SD. A massive surge throughout the country connected to Sturgis. And this Iowa-thirsty GHOUL spends millions on her CPAC Real World audition tape.
Burn the Republican Party to the ground and salt the ashes. https://t.co/qWdArrvSNj
— Zeddy (@Zeddary) October 26, 2020
BREAKING: El Paso under curfew beginning at 10 p.m. due to hospital beds reaching 100% capacity.https://t.co/awfRTy2CSc
— KTSM 9 News (@KTSMtv) October 25, 2020
the pollyanna from hell
Out of a hundred Republican mass murderers, only Kristi Noem will be famous.
Jack Canuck
Some good news to share from here in Melbourne: zero cases and zero deaths in the last twenty-four hours, which means an outbreak in the northern suburbs seems to be well under control – which meant that the premier has finally taken the next step on relaxing restrictions. To the immense relief of all of us in the city, though some were having more trouble coping than others (hello, extroverts – and of course the many people whose livelihoods have been hugely disrupted).
So as of 11.59pm Tuesday night, things are relaxing substantially:
And assuming all goes well (fingers crossed), on November 8 there’s more to come:
It’s been a long, hard slog to get to this point, and everyone’s still nervous about how fragile it all seems, but we’re enjoying the moment for what it is. Most people are scared to death of what we see happening in Europe and the US and Latin America, so there’s a lot of incentive to preserve the gains that have taken so much effort to achieve. We shall see.
Meanwhile, my Dad and his wife are in the middle of things in suburban Chicagoland, and my Mom is in NW Indiana and just lost her husband of 33 years to a brain tumor a few weeks ago. And she’s just found out she was exposed to someone who’s just been diagnosed with covid. So I get to go on feeling stressed about my family overseas – and if anything goes wrong, it’s doubtful I’d be able to get over there to see them.
Patricia Kayden
Annamal
@Jack Canuck: Seriously an amazing acheivement :)
Hoping that a mutual Trans-tasman bubble is possible by christmas.
Starfish
It drives me up the wall that the first restriction towns in the south reach for in a pandemic is curfew.
Mary G
@the pollyanna from hell: Twitler is my #1 on that list, but she’s definitely in the top five. And the Santa plan is just bananas. It’s been a century or two since Caputo was fired and can’t even remember why. California was doing so well, but cases were up 42%, so back into the soup we go. The OC was OK.
Baud
What happens in
VegasSouth Dakota,stays in Vegasspreads all over the country.WereBear
NY in our rural area is still doing okay. We’re… not. Our 12 year old girl cat is really sick, suddenly, and we fear the worst.
On top of everything else, including Mr WereBear nearly dying a year ago and still walks with a cane, and this is his special cat, it is a really gloomy thing for us…
Just resigned to this year. If I looked out the window and saw Godzilla, I swear I wouldn’t be surprised…
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mary G: I think the statewide increase is due to a backlog in cases from LA Country. We had 3600 new cases in one day last week, the 7 day average infection rate jumped to 3.7%, now it’s down a bit to 3.4%.
Brachiator
@Patricia Kayden:
Apparently the task force was tasked with getting the virus. Mission accomplished!
MagdaInBlack
@WereBear: I’m very sorry. The hits just keep on coming, dont they?I’ve been doing fairly well avoiding the gravitational pull of the Black Hole of depression, but this weekend was really rough. I imagine you’re in the same place. The rope is pretty frayed and our hands are blistered from hanging on.
JoyceH
Does anyone else think that if Pence tests positive but is asymptomatic, they’re going to try to keep it quiet and carry on as usual?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@JoyceH: Of course not, this is the most transparent and truthful administration in history.
TS (the original)
@Jack Canuck:
A good day in Australia
Throughout the country there was one locally transmitted case (NSW). A few other cases were returning travellers in quarantine.
jl
@Starfish: By now, curfews and prolonged draconian shutdowns are a sign of poor covid control. It’s not like anyplace is like China in Jan with an unknown plague raging out of control. Taiwan, Finland, Norway are good examples. Norway had a big test for safely opening gyms, thousands of clients monitored at gyms. It failed because the levels of disease was so low, not enough infections going around. They will try again with more people in area with more circulating disease. Nice problem to have.
WereBear
@MagdaInBlack:
Thank you. The last time I saw my friends was socially distanced, on their back porch, during a storm, with lots of wind moving through. We declared this upcoming holiday season to be the worst ever, but their new firepit will allow a possible Solstice party.
I keep trying to cheer up, and the Republicans keep shoving me back in…
Because the stress leading up to the election, with the constant reminders of just how deep the BS goes, is like living in a shoebox that gets smaller and smaller.
jl
Interesting that the outbreaks that I saw reported in this post all started in factories or superspreader events due to lapses in good control policy (Australia). Those were source of current problems in many European countries, plus very lax mask regulations. Popular press should do more work and not report resurgences as if they were some mysterious force. Links in this post better than usual on that point.
TS (the original)
@jl:
Not sure what you mean by this. Took 12 weeks of those draconian ideas to bring the virus under control in Melbourne. Most people accepted it as needed. Are we so regimented in Australia that we accept draconian ideas to limit the damage and spread of a deadly virus? Or do we want to return to a pandemic-normal existence where care and attention allows us to resume our pre-covid lives.
MomSense
@JoyceH:
I think he had it and gave it to his staff. He had Covid eye and the debate.
TS (the original)
@jl:
The outbreak in Melbourne was caused by lack of control in hotels designated for quarantine. Private security were put in charge & there was some intermingling between the security guards and the people in quarantine.
Amir Khalid
Malaysia’s daily numbers. DG of Health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah reports 1,240 new cases today, another new record, for a cumulative reported total of 27,805 cases. 550 of today’s new cases are in prison clusters, which Dr Noor Hisham notes are by their nature isolated from the general population. He also reports seven more deaths for a total of 236 deaths — 0.85% of the cumulative reported total, 1.32% of resolved cases.
1238 new cases are local infections. Sabah has 927 cases: 511 in all clusters, including in the Kepayan Prison cluster (493), and the Kapor cluster; 280 close-contact screenings; and 136 other screenings. Selangor has 176 cases: 109 in existing clusters, 34 close-contact screenings, and 33 other screenings. KL has 17 cases: 11 in existing clusters, two close-contact screenings, and four other screenings. Putrajaya has no new cases today.
Penang has 61 cases: 60 in existing clusters, and one close-contact screening. Negeri Sembilan has 25 cases: 12 in all clusters including the new Hampar cluster, six close-contact screenings, and seven other screenings. other screenings Perak has eight cased: six in all clusters including the new Tapah Prison cluster, and two close-contact screenings. Sarawak has seven cases: five in existing clusters, and two other screenings.
Labuan has five cases: one in an existing cluster, two close-contact screenings, and two other screenings. Johore has four cases: two close-contact screenings, one in an existing cluster, and one other screening. Kedah has three cases, all in existing clusters. Terengganu has three cases in an existing cluster. And Melaka has two cases in an existing cluster.
The two imported cases are non-Malaysians, arriving from Russia and Ukraine.
691 more patients recovered and were discharged today, for a total of 17,825 patients recovered — 64.11% of the cumulative reported total. 9,744 active and contagious cases are currently in hospital; 94 patients are in ICU, of whom 31 are on ventilators.
Today’s seven deaths, all reported in Sabah, are a 67-year-old man with sinusitis; a 71-year-old man with diabetes, hypertension, and diabetes; a 51-year-old woman with diabetes, hypertension, and dislipidaemia; a 61-year-old man; a 50-year-old non-Malaysian man with hypertension, chronic kidney disease and heart disease; a 90-year-old woman; and a 27-year-old man.
In other news, Senior Minister of Defence Ismail Sabri Yaakub has announced that the conditional movement control order now in place in Selangor, and in the Federal Territories of KL and Putrajaya which are geographically located within the state, is extended by two weeks to 9th November.
satby
I talked to my sons yesterday and we’ve called off any holiday celebrating for this year. Even socially distant outside celebrating isn’t possible in the north; well it is but a short visit outside isn’t worth asking people to drive up to 7 hours each way for. Last time I saw either of them was July.
OzarkHillbilly
@TS (the original): We now know of several measures that can be implemented to keep the virus under control and obviate the need for more drastic measures. Things like masks, social distancing, isolation and quarantine as needed, no crowded indoor venues, track and trace, test, test, and test some more. But we refuse to do those things until our hospitals are at 90% capacity and by then only mass shutdowns will help.
debbie
It’s suspicious because it’s Facebook, but then it’s Trump, so it’s likely true. Trump is planning an outdoor ceremony at the White House after Barrett is confirmed. Is it wrong to root for injuries?
MagdaInBlack
@satby: I had been optimistic about seeing an old dear friend over Thanksgiving, but that ain’t happening. I see too many people during the course of a days work, she works in daycare, and is diabetic. Not realistic, not safe to do. So, we will chat, as we do every day, on line.
I suppose i”m blessed to be an introvert, but jeez it’d be nice to laugh and snort and snicker with old friends, in person.
jl
@TS (the original): That’s what I was talking about. Croatia’s first big resurgence was from outbreaks in low income housing without adequate isolation facilities. Lapses in disease control are not the same thing as malfeasant or no control as we have in many places in US. If necessary, and shutdown needed, then of course the responsible thing for people to do is comply until prevalence low enough to do outbreak control again. Didn’t intend to criticize Australia, which is doing at least an order of magnitude better than we are. Places like Australia and Croatia make mistakes, but then fix them. Most of US can’t do that.
debbie
I don’t think it’s a good idea to wear a face shield without a mask like that U.S. healthworker is in that tweet.
jl
@TS (the original): Main point of my comment was to push bake on popular press stories that talk about covid resurgences as if they are mysterious forces of nature. Too many stories don’t say anything about ultimate causes of outbreaks.
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: Are you talking about the tweet leading to the AP article? That’s not a mask, it’s a hood and it is part of an isolation suit.
satby
@MagdaInBlack: Yeah, same here. My sons are essential workers so they’re in contact with the public even during shutdowns, and now that I’m back working again I’m in constant contact with covidiots myself, though I stay as far away as possible from them. So we’re all potentially dangerous to each other, even though as an older asthmatic I’m at the biggest risk. I am hoping Fauci is correct and they can start rolling out a vaccine in December or January to at risk people. Because I’ll be right in line for that the first day.
satby
Off topic, but I cannot wait for fall-back of the clocks. Still pitch dark at 7:44 sucks.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
I was. Sorry.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: You and me both.
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: No biggie, you certainly don’t owe me any kind of apology. I was just pointing out a simple misobservation on your part. Something I am guilty of on a daily basis.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
My early morning acuity could stand improvement, for sure.
the pollyanna from hell
@Mary G: Out of a hundred copycat murderbots, only Kristi Noem will be famous.
Amir Khalid
On Friday PM Muhyiddin Yassin has an audience with the Agong, where he asked His Majesty to proclaim a state of emergency, ostensibly to help the Government deal with the pandemic. Over the weekend, the Agong, noting that the Government already had the policies and enforcement powers it needed, said no.
The Agong’s refusal is a big deal. Normally he goes along with whatever the PM wants, because the Constitutional principle here is that the Agong acts on the advice of the PM. Telling Muhyiddin no, however diplomatically, amounts to a public rebuke — with potentially serious consequences given Muhyiddin’s currently embattled position as PM; opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has claimed he has enough support in Parliament to unseat Muhyiddin. The palace statement has the Agong calling on politicians to leave aside their politicking for now, hinting that the Agong is aware of why Muhyiddin really wanted an emergency declared: for leverage against Anwar.
Muhyiddin has since been meeting with his Cabinet and party allies to decide his next move. Stay tuned.
satby
I wondered about that. Interesting times. Hoping hard for boring times soon for all of us.
Uncle Cosmo
@the pollyanna from hell: “Noem” is an anagram for OMEN. Keep that in mind as her state sinks further into the morass…
Soprano2
Thanks for that article about the home tests, it answers a lot of questions I’ve had for the past several months. If there was a home test like that, I ‘d take it at least once a week. The results could be reportable by text message or through an app or on a Web site. Even if there wasn’t a report of every test result, I would hope that most people who got a positive test would take further action. It doesn’t sound like that’s something Trump has fucked with, at least not so far. That’s what I was wondering about, if they had discouraged companies from making a cheap, rapid test, since he keeps talking about slowing the testing down.
I think if Pence gets COVID they’ll try to keep it secret, just like they tried to keep it secret that Trump had it. I’ll always believe that they were forced into revealing he had it when he and Melania started developing symptoms.
YY_Sima Qian
Yesterday, China reported 0 new domestic confirmed cases and 137 new domestic asymptomatic cases, at Shufu County in Kashgar Prefecture, in Xinjiang “Autonomous” Region. The 1st asymptomatic case (a 17 years old girl) reported on 10/24 and her parents work in separate garment factories in the rural county (legal working age in China is 16). The authorities have tested 831 workers at the factory where the girl works at, all negative. However, after testing 16 Tier 1 close contacts (including the parents) and 406 Tier 2 close contacts, 137 people tested positive. All of the positive cases work at the same garment factory where the parents work. All cases are currently asymptomatic, though at least some are likely pre-symptomatic. It usually takes the hospitals in China to complete clinical assessment to determine if a case is symptomatic, and the reported through the system. The source of this cluster is still unknown, but experts suspect the girl may be a 3rd generation case, since no one else at her factory are infected.. Kashgar Prefecture plans to test all 4.7465M residents in 2 days. As of 4 PM on 10/26, all 245K residents of Shufu County have been swabbed, 26 additional asymptomatic cases have been found, all close contacts of the cases from yesterday. 4.4717M residents of Kashgar Prefecture have been swabbed, with 2.1336M results obtained. Other than the 164 asymptomatic cases already identified, all other results are negative. Large parts of life in Kashgar have been shut down during the mass screening. All schools closed until 10/30, until the test results are sorted out. 4 townships in Shufu County have been designated as High Risk.
Rural Xinjiang like the Shufu County are predominantly Üighur, with the relatively small population of Han Chinese and other minorities mostly living in oasis settlements developed by the Xinjiang Constructions Corps. The XCC report their cases separately, so this cluster is probably not from one of their facilities. As part of the national poverty elimination campaign, regional governments in Xinjiang had been organizing poorly educated Üighur youths in rural areas to work at factories in coastal China (a common practice by Chinese provinces in the hinterland with their residents). However, placing people with poor to non-existent Mandarin skills into alien environment became recipe for communal tensions, so recent efforts have focused on encouraging private and state owned companies to locate factories in Üighur dominated rural areas of western and southern Xinjiang. These government poverty elimination policies can also be deployed in conjunction with the mass detention policies. In rural communities in Xinjiang, those most likely to be sent to the detention facilities are members of religiously conservative families, especially those suspected of Salafist sympathies (grounds for suspicion can be quite expansive and rife for petty abuse). The children are more likely to be sent to boarding schools, and women who are normally kept in the house are arranged to work in factories. These are examples of the CCP regime’s attempts at social engineering, to eliminate “backward” and “uncivilized” practices (in the minds of the regime, and admittedly many chauvinistic Han Chinese).
Xinjiang government had claimed in early 2019 that all “students” in the “reeducation” detention camps had “graduated”, and had been placed into factories. To this day it is unclear how coercive are the factory setups, satellite images show at least some of them seem to resemble penitentiary facilities, with high walls, barbed wires and guard towers. On the other hand, the workers are paid market wages and allowed home leave, though they may be “strongly discouraged” from resigning during the duration of their “contracts”. The Kashgar authorities have published the travel history of the 1st case, which shows that the girl lived in factory dormitory most of the time, but went home for weekend leave every two weeks (it is standard practice in Chinese factories to have 2 days off every 2 weeks), and sometimes visited shopping malls and Sunday bazaars with her parents during her time off. It is not clear if the girl and her parents work at one of the normal factories or one for “graduates” of detention facilities.
Yesterday, China reported 20 new imported confirmed cases and 24 imported asymptomatic cases and 1 imported suspect case:
* Shanghai Municipality – 11 confirmed cases, 2 Chinese nationals each returning from the UK and Ethiopia, 1 each from Spain, Japan, the UAE, Pakistan and Italy (via Vienna), a Serbian national coming from Serbia (via Vienna) and a Yemeni national coming from Egypt (via Vienna); 1 suspect case, no information released
* Hohhot in Inner Mongolia “Autonomous” Region – 2 confirmed cases, no information released
* Xi’an in Shaanxi Province – 2 confirmed cases, a Chinese national returning from the UAE and a Serbian national coming from Serbia (via Brussels)
* Shijiazhuang in Hebei Province – 1 confirmed and 1 asymptomatic cases, no information released
* Taiyuan in Shanxi Province – 1 confirmed case, no information released
* Xiamen in Fujian Province – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from Russia
* Fuzhou in Fujian Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from the Philippines
* Guangzhou in Guangdong Province – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from Ghana; 13 asymptomatic cases, 5 Chinese nationals returning from Bangladesh, 2 each from Canada, Iraq and the UAE, and 1 each from Ghana and Chad
* Qingyuan in Guangdong Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Canada
* Chengdu in Sichuan Province – 1 confirmed case (previously asymptomatic); 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Egypt
* Rizhao Port in Shandong Province – 2 asymptomatic cases, both Filipino crew members off a cargo ship
* Nanjing in Jiangsu Province – 2 asymptomatic cases, no information released
* Hangzhou in Zhejiang – 1 asymptomatic cases, a Chinese national returning from Italy
* Chongqing Municipality – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Singapore
* Kunming in Yunnan Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from the Maldives (via Sri Lanka)
Today, Hong Kong reported 8 new cases, all imported.
Sloane Ranger
@Amir Khalid:
Won’t this lead to a Constitutional crisis? It would in the UK. As you say, the operating principle of Constitutional Monarchies is that unelected rulers (or in your case, monarchs who are only elected by their fellow monarchs) should always act on the advice of the person elected by the people.
How is it playing out in popular opinion. Are people supporting the Agong or the PM?
Geminid
@Amir Khalid: I did not know Malaysia was a constitutional monarchy until your comment yesterday. Your Agong sounds like a solid, level headed person.
WaterGirl
@WereBear: Oh, WereBear, I am sorry to hear it. So glad that Mr. W made it through last year!
Hoping for the best with Mr. W’s special cat.
WaterGirl
@MomSense: I totally agree. I think Trump and Pence both had it at their debates. The disregard for human life is shocking, even for these two.
Sloane Ranger
Following on from my questions to Amir, here are yesterday’s UK figures. There were 19,790 new cases identified. This is @3000 less than the day before, but the figure must be taken with a salt shaker due to the possibility of weekend processing delays and the 7-day positivity rate continues to increase. All home nations report reductions in case numbers from the day before,
England – 16,487 (down just under 3000)
Northern Ireland – 896 (down 27)
Scotland – 1303 (down @100)
Wales – 1104 (down @200).
In terms of cases over the last 7 days, Northern Ireland continues to have the highest rate, followed by Wales, then England (only slightly behind), then Scotland.
Deaths – There were 151 new deaths nationwide, 137 in England, 8 in Northern Ireland, 1 in Scotland and 5 in Wales.
Testing – 340,132 tests were processed out of a capacity of 361,573.
Hospitalisations – There were 7850 people in hospital throughout the UK as of Thursday, 22 October and 743 on ventilators on Friday, 23rd.
No real general updates but just been listening to some talk show where some 80+ year old woman was interviewed. She apparently tested positive but was asymptomatic. She was boasting about how she was still going out and about and wasn’t going to let having a contagious disease ruin what few few years she had left. The even more worrying thing was that half the people who phoned in agreed with her!
I despair!
WereBear
@WaterGirl: Thanks, Watergirl! Will keep the Jackals posted…
YY_Sima Qian
@Amir Khalid: It has been nearly 2 weeks since the more severe restrictions were implemented at Sabah, right? Any sense whether the epidemic curve is bending?
Amir Khalid
@Sloane Ranger:
If Muhyiddin’s coalition collapses, there might have to be a general election in the midst of a pandemic. This is not the time for it. The Agong’s position, as seen in the weekend Palace statement, appears to reflect the people’s: the priority right now is fighting the pandemic. There isn’t much patience with the politicians involved in wrestling for control of Parliament.
Amir Khalid
@YY_Sima Qian:
Last week Dr Noor Hisham said they’d managed to bring the Rt in Sabah down from 2.2 to about 1.5. He’s been saying that the goal is now to bring Rt there down below 1 in the next few weeks. He seems confident that it can be done.
YY_Sima Qian
@Amir Khalid: I am surprised that Rt is still > 1. What I read about the restrictions in Sabah seem to be pretty severe, or has compliance been a problem in more rural areas?
YY_Sima Qian
@Amir Khalid: And why is the current government being challenged? I thought Malaysia’s response to COVID-19 has been largely effective? That kind of achievement has solidified positions of government everywhere it has been reached…
Auntie Anne
@WereBear: oh no! I am so sorry to hear this. What an absolutely crappy year this has been and continues to be.
Amir Khalid
@YY_Sima Qian:
The flimsy coalition that won the 2018 coalition, largely thanks to Najib Tun Razak’s spectacular corruption, was itself replaced by another flimsy coalition led by Muhyiddin. Muhyiddin’s position has indeed been shored up by his government’s handling of the pandemic, and people are not really keen on a change of government right now.
But Anwar Ibrahim seems to feel that the PM’s job, his ambition since the 1970s, has never been closer than it is now. And he’s not the only rival player in this. There’s even talk of the 94-year-old Dr Mahathir maybe becoming PM a third time.
Ksmiami
@debbie: just injuries?!!!
J R in WV
@WereBear:
So sorry to hear about your little girl cat. That is sad.
Take care, be well~!~
YY_Sima Qian
@Amir Khalid: Thanks for the explanation, thought it did make my head spin!
debbie
@WaterGirl:
It’s the thirst for power. They’d both drag their bloated carcasses through quicksand if it helps them win.
Steeplejack
@WereBear:
Sorry to hear about your cat. Sending good thoughts.
Skepticat
Just had a COVID test, as I’ll be staying with friends for a while on my way south, and I want to put their minds at ease. This one hurt, which the one I had in the emergency room in early September didn’t; that was just a really weird sensation. The paperwork stressed that the percentage of false negatives is fairly high, which is depressing. If testing is so vital to getting past this, unreliable tests won’t be much help. Sigh.
@WereBear:
I empathize with you much more than I wish I did, and I hope your dear cat will hang in there. Nowadays I seem more emotionally fragile than ever, so your worries about your cat made me tear up. I’d bought two Kindle mysteries, but I had to get rid of both after only few pages because animals were being hurt in both.
LongHairedWeirdo
@WereBear: I sympathize. I also saw a bit of a Trump rally, wherein Trump insists that no one will be talking about Covid-19 after the election.
As Bob Woodward noted, it can be hard to tell if Donald Trump even *realizes* what’s true, and what’s made up. It takes a low cunning to insist every bad thing is an attack, on Trump, designed to prevent his re-election, when knowing his bootlickers will eat it up. But there’s the question: is he really dull enough to *believe* that? That the *entire world* is made up of – what was the term? disaster actors? – all trying to keep him from winning re-election?
@WereBear:
As a side note: brief contact is relatively safe. A masked hug and brief hold/cuddle won’t get you infected. It’s not enough, of course, but it *is* something, and actually choosing that contact might help fill the hole that might be labeled “unable to just sit around and hang out for a bit”.