Topic: Coronavirus: OFFICIAL Updates/ Health Info/Travel Info

[theschnauzers]

Tokyo Olympics to be postponed to 2021
From Political Wire:
https://politicalwire.com/2020/03/23/olympics-will-be-postponed-until-next-year/
Read Dick Pound’s comments. He’s a long time senior member of the IOC and knows everything. The decision to postpone has been made internally, three major national teams, Australia, Canada and the United States have requested postponement, and two sporting federations the track/field(Athletics) and Swimming have also formally requesting a delay to 2021. Dick Pound is also the IOC’s chief negotiator on the Broadcasting rights for the IOC. And who would want to broadcast events held in empty venues?

Not yet official. As it was suggested by IOC member Dick Pound to call for postpone the games. Wait till the official IOC announcement in a coming of weeks.

[georgiapeach]

It appears not yet to have been confirmed OFFICIALLY. I think it is all but sure but will wait for the official word.

[BourkieBoy]

Australia news!

From midnight tomorrow, food courts and shopping centres will no longer be open (though takeaway food is still allowable).

Auction houses and open house inspections can not continue services.

Beauty therapy, tanning, waxing, nail salons and tattoo parlors will now be forced to close.

Hair dressers and barber shops will be allowed, only if they abide by social distancing (of one person per four square metres) and that nobody is in the premises for more than 30 minutes.

Weddings will now be limited to no more than five people, and funerals to no more than 10 people.

The prime minister told Australians to limit the number of guests people had in their homes, urging them not to hold BBQs, birthday parties and family gatherings.

He said the states and territories will also consider whether to ban house parties.

https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/coronavirus-updates-victoria-live-who-says-pandemic-is-accelerating-olympics-postponed-20200324-p54d7o.html

[BourkieBoy]

Full list of closures from midnight tomorrow:

Food courts in shopping centres but they will be allowed to serve takeaway.

Auction houses and auction rooms.

Open house inspections and auctions.

The states and territories will make a decision on markets. Food markets will be exempt.

Waxing salons, beauty salons, spa and massage parlours, nail salons. Health-related services are exempt.

Hairdressers and barbers can continue but with strict limitations on the number of people. Patrons should spend no more than 30 minutes there.

Amusement parks and arcades.

Indoor and outdoor play centres.

Community and recreation centres, health clubs, yoga studios, barre studios.

Bootcamps and outdoor personal training will be limited to 10 people and social distancing must be adhered to.

Swimming pools.

Large groups of people doing sporting activity outside eg playing a game of soccer.

Galleries, libraries, youth centres, RSLs.

Scotty needs another holiday I think! 

https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/coronavirus-updates-victoria-live-who-says-pandemic-is-accelerating-olympics-postponed-20200324-p54d7o.html

[georgiapeach]

If you haven't signed up to receive these emails yet you may want to reconsider. Read the pulsepoints to see all the failures/issues/successes you may have missed.

http://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/newsroom/newsletters/pulsepoints/

[theschnauzers]

An example of how to hold an election during a pandemic where there’s no mandatory vote by mail. From the Political Wire newsfeed

https://politicalwire.com/2020/03/24/all-georgia-voters-will-get-absentee-ballot-request-forms/

All Georgia Voters Will Get Absentee Ballot Request Forms

March 24, 2020 at 12:44 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 53 Comments

“Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced Tuesday that all of Georgia’s 6.9 million active voters will be mailed absentee ballot request forms for the May 19 primary, a major push to encourage voting by mail during the coronavirus pandemic,” the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.

“The absentee voting effort will allow Georgians to decide on their choices for president and other elected offices from home, without having to visit in-person voting locations where the coronavirus could more easily spread. Early voting and election day precincts will remain open.”

[georgiapeach]

Guess I better check my mail then...   

[theschnauzers]

Here, they’re returning early voting, including voting by mail, to a 40 day period prior to the primary election in early June, but one still has to request an absentee ballot, in writing by mail on the approved form.

Update: the Secretary of state is going to send out ballot request form to all registered voters, with business reply postage free envelopes. The ballots themselves are already sent and returned postage free.

[Plaidmoon]

Here's an interesting website I saw a reference to in another forum: https://healthweather.us/ It's from a company that manufactures smart thermometers and it tracks the occurrence of people having fevers in the United States (but apparently not Hawaii or Alaska). It's not a true COVID-19 occurrence map, but it does correlate well to what appear to be the current hot spots and may give some clues as to whether stay at home orders are working. Overall, since we are getting into spring, the atypical numbers are low (compared to winter?) but the relative values appear to be significant. However, in sparsely populated areas, data is lacking, so you can't determine a lot there.

[georgiapeach]

Hot spots ❤️ lol

[BourkieBoy]

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L89nN03pBzI" target="_blank" class="new_win">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L89nN03pBzI</a>

In other news, Victoria is in 'Stage 3' lockdown. This means you will be find $1600 if you are caught by the police gathering in groups of 2 people or more! However, there is some good news! The 'curve is flattening' in Australia at the moment, so that is very good news!

Meanwhile, that idiot conservative commentator Andrew Bolt believes that Australia get back to work in two weeks! (April 14). I don't know whether to laugh at his stupidity or slap my self on the forehead with his stupidity! 

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/blogs/andrew-bolt/good-news-means-we-must-get-back-to-in-two-weeks/news-story/6ece8ff86c873db05c4fe0fc25a90f04?from=htc_rss

[Declive]

Forgot to write it here, but Bolsonaro's last national TV announcement was him saying that people should just go back to their normal lives and forget about this virus, which according to him is "just a minor flu"

That...is disguised genocide.

[Alenaveda]

Forgot to write it here, but Bolsonaro's last national TV announcement was him saying that people should just go back to their normal lives and forget about this virus, which according to him is "just a minor flu"

That...is disguised genocide.

Well, here the president has just announced that quarantine extends until Easter.

[theschnauzers]

Trump apparently received a new study that indicates at least one to two million cases in the US, and 100,000 to 200,000 deaths. He quickly decided to extend the current guidance through April 39, and conceded that the death tolls would likely reach 100,000.
Not so clear is his position on getting sufficient numbers of ventilators, masks, oxygen, PPC gowns, and other needed supplies.

[georgiapeach]

April 30. And that is just the beginning. Glad for some slight sign of sanity.

[Plaidmoon]

April 30. And that is just the beginning. Glad for some slight sign of sanity.

I work for a government agency and on a conference call today with my boss was told that our current minimal staffing (and my full time teleworking) would continue through April 30th at the minimum and more likely until May 30th. As a high risk person (diabetes), I'm kind of relieved but working at home has been weird.

[georgiapeach]

Glad for you Plaid! Home is the best place for all of us right now.

[theschnauzers]

On Tuesday, the White House daily coronavirus briefing went on for two hours, as the two medical experts disclosed the extent and nature the pandemic is likely to take on the modeling that’s being used.

With the expectation that infections and deaths will be far greater than previously disclosed, it is horrific and jaw dropping. But the experts finally got through. As CNN reported:

Even with blanket nationwide adoption of stringent mitigation efforts, between 100,000 and 240,000 Americans could face death in the coming weeks in a cascading nationwide ordeal, according to modeling explained by senior members of the President's emergency task force Tuesday.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/31/politics/trump-coronavirus/index.html

[HavaDrPepper]

I've been using the John Hopkins map and tracking the number of cases in each state on a spreadsheet. I'm calculating the percentage of cases in the state against their population. 

I am so proud of my governor and the restrictions he put in place even before Ohio had a confirmed case.  With the 7th largest state population, we are sitting at approximately  33rd percentage wise with the number of cases. The highest we have been was 28th since I started tracking. I have also been watching our daily briefings and they reiterate every single day that Ohio has not seen the surge yet and that there are more positive cases in the state than what are reported. We have so few tests that they save them for the individuals with the most severe symptoms.  They give all kinds of data in those briefings as well.  I love it!  Age range of infections in Ohio... less than 1 year old to 99.  This virus does not discriminate.  They also upload a spreadsheet of the basic information (county, age of individual, sex of individual, onset date of virus, date of death if applicable and hospitalization (yes/no) on a daily basis.  The other day there were 39 deaths... 37 of them were age 60 and older. 23 of those 37 were male.  Oh yeah, the number of tests actually run in Ohio as of 3/31/20 is 29,191... approximately 39% of the positives in New York.

Nice to see positive coverage about Ohio since most media tends to ignore us.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52113186

[georgiapeach]

Nice update!

We can beat this...but social separation is key.

I am so thankful to have all of you safely in my computer so we can stay in touch!

[Jimmer]

I've been using the John Hopkins map and tracking the number of cases in each state on a spreadsheet. I'm calculating the percentage of cases in the state against their population. 

I am so proud of my governor and the restrictions he put in place even before Ohio had a confirmed case.  With the 7th largest state population, we are sitting at approximately  33rd percentage wise with the number of cases.

I think it's cool that you are tracking cases! However, I'm not sure how valid it is to compare states, even when accounting for population during the crisis. The is a lot of uncertainty in regards to number of cases because there is lots of variability in who gets tested, plus the onset and peak of the virus will vary across states. It's definitely good data to have, but the data could be noisy and have hidden factors, so be careful with the conclusions you draw!

[HavaDrPepper]

I've been using the John Hopkins map and tracking the number of cases in each state on a spreadsheet. I'm calculating the percentage of cases in the state against their population. 

I am so proud of my governor and the restrictions he put in place even before Ohio had a confirmed case.  With the 7th largest state population, we are sitting at approximately  33rd percentage wise with the number of cases.

I think it's cool that you are tracking cases! However, I'm not sure how valid it is to compare states, even when accounting for population during the crisis. The is a lot of uncertainty in regards to number of cases because there is lots of variability in who gets tested, plus the onset and peak of the virus will vary across states. It's definitely good data to have, but the data could be noisy and have hidden factors, so be careful with the conclusions you draw!

It isn't really a comparison but just interesting data to me.  Is it exact. Nope. Is it fluid. Yep. Only #1 and #2 have not changed since I started doing it. Like you said there are many factors. 

My main reason for doing it was because someone on another message board made a comment about the USA taking the top spot with number of cases and how horrible that looked for the USA (person is from Canada).  I responded with the fact that you cannot base this on number of actual cases but on a percentage based on population.  Then I went down a rabbit hole on my own about the 50 states, DC and Puerto Rico.  Interesting fact... Texas (#2 population wise) is sitting at 47th out of 52. Will they stay there, who knows.  California (#1 population wise) is sitting in 28th. Interesting, right?

It is interesting to see what states are at the top though.  4 of the top 5 are in the northeast (New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut).  Louisiana has snuck into the top 5 (3rd)  and Michigan is now up to 6th.  You can tell where the hot spots in the country are.  Washington has been moving down (now 8th) because their cases are on the downswing since they are in the recovery phase.  DC is sitting in 7th, Rhode Island in 9th and Colorado in 10th.

 

[Jimmer]

Yes it still is interesting, good insight!

[georgiapeach]

It is interesting to see what states are at the top though.  4 of the top 5 are in the northeast (New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut).  Louisiana has snuck into the top 5 (3rd)  and Michigan is now up to 6th.  You can tell where the hot spots in the country are.  Washington has been moving down (now 8th) because their cases are on the downswing since they are in the recovery phase.  DC is sitting in 7th, Rhode Island in 9th and Colorado in 10th.

 

How about giving us a Top Ten daily update? Or however often you do them...

[georgiapeach]

I HIGHLY recommend these updates From Johns Hopkins Health Security...they are excellent.

You can sign up for daily and emergency email alerts here:

http://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/newsroom/newsletters/e-newsletter-sign-up.html