[OFF TOPIC] Coronavirus Pandemic

[up and down 82]

The world is not doing enough of test. This is what WHO had to say about the number of patients being tested for the virus.

 

India's poor testing rate may have masked coronavirus cases

 

The WHO urges countries to test more people to curb the pandemic, but India has not expanded testing so far.

 

As of Wednesday 151 Indians were infected with coronavirus, not 276 as the previous version of the story said. A total of 276 Indians have tested positive for the virus overseas.

Indian authorities have said they will not expand coronavirus testing, as most affected nations are doing, despite criticism that limited testing could leave COVID-19 cases undetected in the world's second-most populous country.

 

The World Health Organization (WHO) has urged countries to test as widely as possible to curb the pandemic, but India has only been testing those who have travelled from affected countries or come in contact with a confirmed case and shown symptoms after two weeks of quarantine.

 

On Tuesday, it added healthcare workers with symptoms who are treating patients with severe respiratory illnesses.

 

India is conducting only about 90 tests a day, despite having the capacity for as many as 8,000. So far, 11,500 people have been tested, according to The Associated Press.

 

WHO guidance 'premature'
Officials have said the WHO guidance didn't apply in India because the spread of the disease has been less severe than elsewhere.

 

Balaram Bharghava, who heads the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the country's top medical research body, said the guidance was "premature" for India, where community transmission has not yet been detected.

 

"Therefore, it creates more fear, more paranoia and more hype," he said.

 

Last week, a British citizen who approached a public hospital in New Delhi for coronavirus test was told she was not eligible under India's testing criteria and turned away.

 

The woman, who requested anonymity fearing business consequences for her employer, said she told hospital officials that she may have had contact with an infected person in her hospitality sector job, but could not be sure.

 

After trying and failing to be tested a second time, she left India this week for France, where her family lives and where President Emmanuel Macron had announced extreme measures to curb the coronavirus.

 

Indian authorities have justified their restrictions as a way to keep a deluge of people from demanding tests that would cost the government money it needs to combat other diseases such as tuberculosis, malnutrition and HIV/AIDs.

 

ICMR said there was no need to expand such testing. However, authorities said they're preparing for community spread by bolstering their lab testing infrastructure. India has 52 coronavirus testing centres.

 

As a result of the narrow testing criteria, sick people with potential exposure to the coronavirus are being sent home, and some experts fear that India's caseload could be much higher than government statistics indicate.

 

Bharghava, the ICMR chief, said virus infections in India can still be traced back to people who travelled into the country from affected locales and that testing protocols would be revised if community transmission is detected.

 

Coronavirus cases in India rose to 151 on Wednesday, a day after a third person, a 64-year-old man, died in the western state of Maharashtra.

 

A total of 276 Indians have tested positive for coronavirus overseas to date, an Indian government minister said on Wednesday.

 

The vast majority, 255, tested positive in Iran, with others in the United Arab Emirates, Italy, Kuwait, Sri Lanka, Rwanda and Hong Kong, V Muraleedharan, minister of state for external affairs, said in Parliament.

 

The South Asian nation has closed most schools and entertainment facilities, including cinemas.

 

Authorities say most of the infections have been "imported" - linked to foreign travel or direct contact with someone who caught the disease abroad.

 

India has suspended all incoming tourists and will bar non-Indian passengers on flights from the European Union, the European Free Trade Association, Turkey and the United Kingdom from Wednesday.

 

Travellers coming from or transiting through the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman and Kuwait are required to undergo a 14-day quarantine when they arrive in India, the government announced on Monday.

 

Arrivals from China, Italy, Iran, South Korea, France, Spain and Germany are already subject to similar restrictions, while most border points with neighbouring Bangladesh and Myanmar have been shut.

Undetected spread
 

But concerns of undetected communal spread are growing.

 

"Given the pattern of disease in other places, and given our low level of testing, then I do think that community transmission is happening, " said Dr Gagandeep Kang, director of the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute.

 

WHO said that, while self-initiated isolation by people with mild symptoms remains the most important community intervention, testing of all suspected cases, symptomatic contacts of probable and confirmed cases, would still be needed.

 

"We need to be geared to respond to the evolving situation with the aim to stop transmission of COVID-19 at the earliest to minimise the impact. ... We need to act now," said Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, the WHO's director for the region.

 

More than 400 million of India's 1.3 billion people live in crowded cities, many without regular access to clean water, conditions that could allow the disease to spread rapidly.

 

"Community spread is very likely. But the only way to know for sure is through more expansive testing," said Dr Anant Bhan, a global health researcher in Bhopal, India.

 

The virus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough, for most people, but severe illness is more likely in the elderly and people with existing health problems.

 

India has a lower proportion of elderly than other countries, but its healthcare facilities are limited and already struggle to accommodate the large number of patients with other diseases.

 

"This, along with our high population density, can be our great challenge," public health researcher Oommen Kurian told the Associated Press.

India has been reluctant to expand testing, not wanting to trigger panic and overwhelm hospitals, but also because of the cost: While the tests are free for patients, they cost the government about 5,000 rupees ($67) each.

 

In an already stretched and underfunded public healthcare system, money spent on the coronavirus leaves less for other public health problems. India spends only 3.7 percent of its total budget on health.

 

The coronavirus may also be spreading in India because health officials have struggled to maintain quarantines, with people fleeing from isolation wards, complaining of filthy conditions.

 

In Maharashtra, five people, one of whom had tested negative and the rest who were awaiting test results, walked out of an isolation ward last Saturday.

Hindu residents wearing protective masks perform prayers for the protection against coronavirus disease (COVID-19), outside a temple, in Ahmedabad, India, 
 

The coronavirus may also be spreading in India because health officials have struggled to maintain quarantines.

Enforcing containment
 

India has implemented a 19th-century epidemic law that empowers public officials to enforce more rigorous containment measures and impose penalties and punishments for escapes.

 

Lav Agarwal, a health ministry official, said authorities "often don't get enough support from people".

 

Similarly, in neighbouring Sri Lanka, the government has ordered about 170 passengers who evaded airport screening after returning from several affected countries to report to police or face financial penalties and possible imprisonment.

 

Aditya Bhatnagar, an Indian university student who was studying in Spain, described unsanitary conditions at an isolation ward where he and 50 others passengers on a flight from Barcelona have been kept since landing in New Delhi on Monday.

 

Bhatnagar said the rooms, each holding about eight people, lacked basic hygiene features such as clean bedsheets and bathrooms. He told the AP that the group, awaiting their COVID-19 test results, was not provided with masks or sanitiser.

 

"I don't think these measures would be enough to contain the pandemic," Bhatnagar, the ICMR chief, said, adding that some passengers had opted to move from the wards and into private hotels, paying 4,000 rupees ($55) a night to self-isolate for at least 14 days.

[dcro 10,210]

Dutch are destroying tulips!

[heywoodu 15,174]

3 minutes ago, dcro said:

Dutch are destroying tulips!

 

And other flowers. Sadly nobody wants to buy them for at least the very low minimum price that has been set at the big auction houses, meaning they have to be destroyed - pretty much throwing a large part of the livelihood of people in this industry down the drain.

 

People who sell flowers on markets and such, so on a way smaller scale than the huge auctions, often decide to give them away to the elderly for example these days, but for those big operations around the auctions that's just not a feasible thing to do.

[Fly_like_a_don 1,091]

6 hours ago, up and down said:

The world is not doing enough of test. This is what WHO had to say about the number of patients being tested for the virus.

 

India's poor testing rate may have masked coronavirus cases

 

The WHO urges countries to test more people to curb the pandemic, but India has not expanded testing so far.

 

As of Wednesday 151 Indians were infected with coronavirus, not 276 as the previous version of the story said. A total of 276 Indians have tested positive for the virus overseas.

Indian authorities have said they will not expand coronavirus testing, as most affected nations are doing, despite criticism that limited testing could leave COVID-19 cases undetected in the world's second-most populous country.

 

The World Health Organization (WHO) has urged countries to test as widely as possible to curb the pandemic, but India has only been testing those who have travelled from affected countries or come in contact with a confirmed case and shown symptoms after two weeks of quarantine.

 

On Tuesday, it added healthcare workers with symptoms who are treating patients with severe respiratory illnesses.

 

India is conducting only about 90 tests a day, despite having the capacity for as many as 8,000. So far, 11,500 people have been tested, according to The Associated Press.

 

WHO guidance 'premature'
Officials have said the WHO guidance didn't apply in India because the spread of the disease has been less severe than elsewhere.

 

Balaram Bharghava, who heads the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the country's top medical research body, said the guidance was "premature" for India, where community transmission has not yet been detected.

 

"Therefore, it creates more fear, more paranoia and more hype," he said.

 

Last week, a British citizen who approached a public hospital in New Delhi for coronavirus test was told she was not eligible under India's testing criteria and turned away.

 

The woman, who requested anonymity fearing business consequences for her employer, said she told hospital officials that she may have had contact with an infected person in her hospitality sector job, but could not be sure.

 

After trying and failing to be tested a second time, she left India this week for France, where her family lives and where President Emmanuel Macron had announced extreme measures to curb the coronavirus.

 

Indian authorities have justified their restrictions as a way to keep a deluge of people from demanding tests that would cost the government money it needs to combat other diseases such as tuberculosis, malnutrition and HIV/AIDs.

 

ICMR said there was no need to expand such testing. However, authorities said they're preparing for community spread by bolstering their lab testing infrastructure. India has 52 coronavirus testing centres.

 

As a result of the narrow testing criteria, sick people with potential exposure to the coronavirus are being sent home, and some experts fear that India's caseload could be much higher than government statistics indicate.

 

Bharghava, the ICMR chief, said virus infections in India can still be traced back to people who travelled into the country from affected locales and that testing protocols would be revised if community transmission is detected.

 

Coronavirus cases in India rose to 151 on Wednesday, a day after a third person, a 64-year-old man, died in the western state of Maharashtra.

 

A total of 276 Indians have tested positive for coronavirus overseas to date, an Indian government minister said on Wednesday.

 

The vast majority, 255, tested positive in Iran, with others in the United Arab Emirates, Italy, Kuwait, Sri Lanka, Rwanda and Hong Kong, V Muraleedharan, minister of state for external affairs, said in Parliament.

 

The South Asian nation has closed most schools and entertainment facilities, including cinemas.

 

Authorities say most of the infections have been "imported" - linked to foreign travel or direct contact with someone who caught the disease abroad.

 

India has suspended all incoming tourists and will bar non-Indian passengers on flights from the European Union, the European Free Trade Association, Turkey and the United Kingdom from Wednesday.

 

Travellers coming from or transiting through the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman and Kuwait are required to undergo a 14-day quarantine when they arrive in India, the government announced on Monday.

 

Arrivals from China, Italy, Iran, South Korea, France, Spain and Germany are already subject to similar restrictions, while most border points with neighbouring Bangladesh and Myanmar have been shut.

Undetected spread
 

But concerns of undetected communal spread are growing.

 

"Given the pattern of disease in other places, and given our low level of testing, then I do think that community transmission is happening, " said Dr Gagandeep Kang, director of the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute.

 

WHO said that, while self-initiated isolation by people with mild symptoms remains the most important community intervention, testing of all suspected cases, symptomatic contacts of probable and confirmed cases, would still be needed.

 

"We need to be geared to respond to the evolving situation with the aim to stop transmission of COVID-19 at the earliest to minimise the impact. ... We need to act now," said Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, the WHO's director for the region.

 

More than 400 million of India's 1.3 billion people live in crowded cities, many without regular access to clean water, conditions that could allow the disease to spread rapidly.

 

"Community spread is very likely. But the only way to know for sure is through more expansive testing," said Dr Anant Bhan, a global health researcher in Bhopal, India.

 

The virus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough, for most people, but severe illness is more likely in the elderly and people with existing health problems.

 

India has a lower proportion of elderly than other countries, but its healthcare facilities are limited and already struggle to accommodate the large number of patients with other diseases.

 

"This, along with our high population density, can be our great challenge," public health researcher Oommen Kurian told the Associated Press.

India has been reluctant to expand testing, not wanting to trigger panic and overwhelm hospitals, but also because of the cost: While the tests are free for patients, they cost the government about 5,000 rupees ($67) each.

 

In an already stretched and underfunded public healthcare system, money spent on the coronavirus leaves less for other public health problems. India spends only 3.7 percent of its total budget on health.

 

The coronavirus may also be spreading in India because health officials have struggled to maintain quarantines, with people fleeing from isolation wards, complaining of filthy conditions.

 

In Maharashtra, five people, one of whom had tested negative and the rest who were awaiting test results, walked out of an isolation ward last Saturday.

Hindu residents wearing protective masks perform prayers for the protection against coronavirus disease (COVID-19), outside a temple, in Ahmedabad, India, 
 

The coronavirus may also be spreading in India because health officials have struggled to maintain quarantines.

Enforcing containment
 

India has implemented a 19th-century epidemic law that empowers public officials to enforce more rigorous containment measures and impose penalties and punishments for escapes.

 

Lav Agarwal, a health ministry official, said authorities "often don't get enough support from people".

 

Similarly, in neighbouring Sri Lanka, the government has ordered about 170 passengers who evaded airport screening after returning from several affected countries to report to police or face financial penalties and possible imprisonment.

 

Aditya Bhatnagar, an Indian university student who was studying in Spain, described unsanitary conditions at an isolation ward where he and 50 others passengers on a flight from Barcelona have been kept since landing in New Delhi on Monday.

 

Bhatnagar said the rooms, each holding about eight people, lacked basic hygiene features such as clean bedsheets and bathrooms. He told the AP that the group, awaiting their COVID-19 test results, was not provided with masks or sanitiser.

 

"I don't think these measures would be enough to contain the pandemic," Bhatnagar, the ICMR chief, said, adding that some passengers had opted to move from the wards and into private hotels, paying 4,000 rupees ($55) a night to self-isolate for at least 14 days.

Not very happy about that. 

[Fly_like_a_don 1,091]

I'm satisfied somewhat with my state government. We have sealed borders with other states . No public transport, no railways, no international flight and very soon no domestic flight too. It was supposed to be in covid positive districts .But eventually most of them are following. Only pharmacies and hospitals are open here. Groceries were meant to be open but people here have closed it. So basically no transport no shops. All temples , churces and mosques closed. Schools and Colleges have been closed. 

 

 

Here's a look at my place :

 

 

 

 

Edited March 23, 2020 by Fly_like_a_don

[heywoodu 15,174]

So does delivery still work? If not, how do you get your food?

[Fly_like_a_don 1,091]

There is no delivery of food. Luckily people hereby grow vegetables and milk is also from neighbours ( most people here bring milk from  those who have cows , and usually these are nearby so walking distance) But then there isn't enough grocery  for everyone . Maybe by then we need to depend on just rice. Like from morning neigbours are calling to know if there is any shop open. Just got to know now  there is one around 3km away ( a chicken shop - chicken sales are actually very less due to the bird flu in the state)  .So basically people are scared to open shops and even we used homemade Papaya for  lunch  today

Edited March 23, 2020 by Fly_like_a_don

[Fly_like_a_don 1,091]

It's a 9 day lock down in the state until 31st March , in a state with 7 crore population and 28 cases till now. 

 

[heywoodu 15,174]

9 minutes ago, Fly_like_a_don said:

There is no delivery of food. Luckily people hereby grow vegetables and milk is also from neighbours ( most people here bring milk from  those who have cows , and usually these are nearby so walking distance) But then there isn't enough grocery  for everyone . Maybe by then we need to depend on just rice. Like from morning neigbours are calling to know if there is any shop open. Just got to know now  there is one around 3km away ( a chicken shop - chicken sales are actually very less due to the bird flu in the state)  .So basically people are scared to open shops and even we used homemade Papaya for  lunch  today

 

Isn't that just a 100% recipe for total anarchy within a very short time? At some point neighbours don't have enough to give each other something to eat, one would assume..

[Fly_like_a_don 1,091]

1 minute ago, heywoodu said:

 

Isn't that just a 100% recipe for total anarchy within a very short time? At some point neighbours don't have enough to give each other something to eat, one would assume..

That's possible. Already seen few neigbours ask for some leafy vegetables ,tomatoes etc this morning. Within few days people will go back to normal. It's going to be difficult like this. Not sure if everyone have stock for 9 days. One of mom's friend brought 10kg chicken as soon as she got to know its open.