What about this virus? Covid-19

[Feebee2]

Originally Posted by smoggy123

My husband is on the Tern rig offshore - they have gone on lockdown today, no flights on or off, as one of the workers returned from a holiday to Thailand last week and is now showing symptoms.

The guy in question has been placed in isolation on the rig until his results come through, which will take until Sunday.

They work in very close quarters so I hope it is all a fuss about nothing. If he DOES have the virus then my husband could be stuck on the rig for god knows how long

See more...

Oh god, hope everything works out x

[Amystefan]

Originally Posted by smoggy123

My husband is on the Tern rig offshore - they have gone on lockdown today, no flights on or off, as one of the workers returned from a holiday to Thailand last week and is now showing symptoms.

The guy in question has been placed in isolation on the rig until his results come through, which will take until Sunday.

They work in very close quarters so I hope it is all a fuss about nothing. If he DOES have the virus then my husband could be stuck on the rig for god knows how long

See more...

People are suggested to be isolated for 14 day’s as this is the maximum incubation period, therefore providing no symptoms appear within that time then its highly unlikely to be CoVID-19. This does only work if people are isolated and they timer starts from the point of last exposure (ie last contact with a suspected or known case). So fingers crossed even if the other guy is positive for the virus as long as your hubby is symptom free for 14 days after his last contact with the index case on the rig then he’d be allowed back home

[Amystefan]

Some of the post on here are just crazy! No offence is meant by that but honestly the amount of scaremongering and spreading of misinformation is just astounding! I am a microbiologist and have been working with teams getting all the relevant testing and PPE in place with my hospital trust. Public Health England have a webpage they update at 2pm everyday with all the relevant information regarding returning travellers and what to do etc. Currently CoVID -19 is NOT endemic in the UK and cases have either travelled to affect areas or had close prolonged face to face contact with someone who has. The virus for the most part is like flu, with very similar case fatality rates, yet there is nowhere near as much fuss about flu as there is this virus. As yet the UK are only testing people that have a relevant exposure (ie travelled to affected areas or contact with a case) this May change but I would suggest not getting your information regarding what is or is not happening from the tabloids and look at the phe site. Basic infection control practice can help reduce risk of getting any respiratory infection and therefore it’s important as ever to catch cough and sneezes in a tissue, bin the tissue then wash your hands. Regular hand washing or use of alcohol gels regularly is also advised, but this is just what most sensible people do anyway. Also the surgical masks people seem to be panic buying don’t offer adequate protection, they are only of use for about 1hr max! All I ask is that people don’t spread misinformation and cause unnecessary panic as this is dangerous and could result in people doing things that could actually do them more harm than good.
gov.uk/guidance/wuhan-no...for-the-public

[Amystefan]

Originally Posted by waiting4disney

Originally I wasn't worried but I admit I am getting concerned now as DS has asthma.

I do wonder if there is a symptom they aren't telling us about as it seems strange that you need to call the NHS if you have travelled back from 9 various countries and have mild cold like symptoms so that they can assess you.
Hundreds a day must come back from those countries and with mild cold like symptoms...
So why aren't they all being tested or if there something they ask when you call up...

My office is full of cough and cold germs at the moment. No one has travelled anywhere but if they had come back from Japan for example they should call up the helpline...

See more...

They ask you a list of questions about what exposures you’ve had whilst in x country, any contact with ill people, any hospital visits, any symptoms of fever, cough, coryza, exactly when and where they were, when they returned etc. If they returned over 14 days ago they don’t get tested (as last significant exposure was outside of the incubation period) if only been in Singapore airport, they may not test either. It’s all done on a risk assessment and then the drs have to discuss this with phe who then give the final go ahead to test. Most people tested are also put in self isolation ie at home. I don’t think anyone is keeping information from the public, there is just a lot more to the process than the general public are aware of

[Nimbus]

Originally Posted by Amystefan

Currently CoVID -19 is NOT endemic in the UK ... The virus for the most part is like flu, with very similar case fatality rates, yet there is nowhere near as much fuss about flu as there is this virus.

See more...

That's the important part to note.

CoVID-19 is no more deadly than flu. It's generally only a concern for those people at risk, due to a pre-existing medical condition or age, and the concern is no different than that associated with contracting flu. Yet millions of people get flu each year and the press (and, thus, the public) doesn't panic about that.

[YorkshireT]

Some good facts and figures on death rates etc here.

World Health Organisation says fatality rate cannot yet he judged. So an NHS trust will not know.

Estimates of death rates currently vary from in the teens to 2.1 % in China, but widely reported that China is under reporting deaths.

Latest here is 13% death rate, reported daily:

worldometers.info/coronavirus/

Fatality rate for flu in US is <.15% kff/other/state-indi...2:%22asc%22%7D . This year in USA it is 0.05%.

China has reasonably advanced healthcare.

WHO says they cannot yet determine the death rate, but it seems much higher than flu.

I simply do not accept there is any evidence this is anything like flu at this time. Evidence points to something much more serious but we don’t know for certain:

vox/2020/2/12/211347...mortality-rate

[Hmr89]

With regard to death rate, you also have to consider that with full hospitals and a huge shortage of diagnostic equipment, those with minor illness or those that are asymptomatic are unlikely to be included in Chinese figures.

The UK based "super spreader" and those linked to him probably would have gone undiagnosed/unrecorded in Wuhan as they had mild symptoms and quick recoveries.

The current mortality rate for 'closed cases' outside of mainland China is 3.5%. (5 Deaths, 137 discharged). Deaths have been 2 elderly and 3 people with pre-existing conditions. Granted, this is still significantly higher than stats for seasonal flu.


On a seperate note, China's air pollution is at very unsafe levels at the moment...There probably haven't been any conclusive studies yet but I wonder how much of a contributing factor that is to the severity of symptoms/ cases?

[YorkshireT]

Originally Posted by Ambermark

I agree its not like flu but that website states a 2% fatality rate, the 13% is 13% of resolved cases have died while 87% have been discharged.

See more...

The website says 2% was the WHO early estimate (WHO say it’s too early to say with certainty).

Of all the cases they have detected that are resolved (got better or died) 13% have died. The rest are still working through of which 19% are serious or critical.
Whichever way you look at it, it’s way more than flu, on detected cases, unless there are a mass of people with it undetected.

[Nimbus]

Originally Posted by YorkshireT

Latest here is 13% death rate, reported daily:

worldometers.info/coronavirus/

See more...

No, that website does not say there is a 13% death rate.

BTW, during this winter, around 19 million people across the USA have had the flu virus, resulting in approximately 180,000 hospitalisations and roughly 10,000 deaths.

Meanwhile, in the same period, 15 people in the USA have contracted the COVID-19 virus, none of which have been hospitalised and none of which have resulted in any deaths.

So, I guess you're right: it's nothing like the flu.

Although at the moment it seems like the death rate for COVID-19 is much higher than flu, we may find that there are a lot of mild cases of COVID-19 that are not being reported or being misdiagnosed (perhaps as a cold or mild flu). This would result in a lower death rate.

[sky13]

The best case scenario I'm hoping for is that COVID-19 turns out to be like how H1N1 in 2009 ended up being far less bad than was feared.

My information is rather Singapore centric (since that's where I am) but at any rate this is what I'm getting right now from official sources (Ministry of Health) and news outlets here:

Also as I mentioned earlier I got very worried a few days ago when Singapore's numbers went to 50 cases (including fairly well cases hospitalised mainly for isolation purposes) with 8 cases in intensive care (moh.gov.sg/news-highligh...tion-confirmed).

Thankfully it seems that as of today the percentage of patients in intensive care look better - 77 cases with 4 cases in intensive care (moh.gov.sg/news-highligh...tion-confirmed).

I rather like the infographic that one of the local news agencies puts out for Singapore cases and links, which is based mostly off the Ministry of Health press releases and any additional information the news agency has found. This is available here channelnewsasia/news...24082018_c na and is this picture


I really like how as far as possible they have managed to link a number of the cases together.

Though there is some worry over the fact that a number of clusters of infection and infected patients here do not appear to have an epidemiological link to China. This includes the Grace Assembly of God church cluster at >10 cases, the Seletar Aerospace construction site cluster with 5 cases, some of the other linked cases, and a few cases with no known links at all with other cases including a teacher (Case 32), a taxi driver (Case 35) and a private hire (something like Uber) driver (Case 37). It seems that if Singapore had only tested cases with epidemiological links to China they would have missed all of these cases? (So it's just as well we appear to be testing a lot...)

As a total aside - a lot of preventive measures have come into play here, with temperature monitoring at work and at various other places. Just yesterday I went into a fast food place for lunch and they were checking temperatures using a forehead scanner before letting people go into the outlet. A number of people I know have had their offices adopt policies where half the office works in the office and the other half works at home, and they then swap out after a couple of weeks. Schools have cancelled camps and large group activities and are supposed to be having staggered break times.

Oh and I haven't seen masks, hand sanitisers, antibacterial wipes, or even alcohol swabs in stores for a while now.

I also can't plan a holiday anywhere now for the moment due to not being able to take annual leave, and the worry that if things get worse, other countries might quarantine travellers from Singapore. Some countries already have travel alerts for Singapore. There's just too much uncertainty right now.

Also, if I go back to a month ago, I couldn't have ever imagined that:
- A whole city/province in China got shut down, for 3+ weeks and counting.
- Most of China got shut down, for 3+ weeks and counting.
- A number of airlines have suspended flights to/from China.
- A number of countries have placed quarantines on travellers from China.
- Some countries just refuse entry altogether to travellers from China.
- Shanghai Disneyland and Hong Kong Disneyland have been closed for 3+ weeks and counting. (Not to mention other tourist destinations.)
- Macau closed its casinos for 2 weeks and counting (though they might reopen soon?)
- People were quarantined on a cruise ship with infections increasing daily.
- Another cruise ship was refused entry to several destinations and had to wander around at sea for a while before finally docking.

Would love for life to get back to normal please, not this weird twilight zone the last month has felt like...