[OFF TOPIC] Coronavirus Pandemic

[hckošice 15,029]

44 minutes ago, heywoodu said:

Might as well drink it, it tastes like hand sanitizer anyway

 

that´s what peoples here usually says about hungarian beer but shhh don't tell them, it will stay as a small secret between us.

 

Spoiler

Joking, I know they know very well themselves their beer are tragic, but HUN has superb wine and excellent hard alcohol

 

[heywoodu 15,253]

1 minute ago, hckosice said:

 

that´s what peoples here usually says about hungarian beer but shhh don't tell them, it will stay as a small secret between us.

 

  Hide contents

Joking, I know they know very well themselves their beer are tragic, but HUN has superb wine and excellent hard alcohol

 

 

Anyway the taste is only important for the first few glasses to get warmed up, after that, who cares what it tastes like  

[up and down 82]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-indonesia-governor/indonesia-needs-massive-rapid-testing-for-coronavirus-idUSKBN21K1OI

 

Indonesia needs 'massive, rapid' testing for coronavirus

 

Excerpts from the article above.

 

Indonesia needs to perform “massive” testing to reveal the full spread of the coronavirus and ensure that people who travel home during the approaching Muslim holiday isolate themselves, the governor of the archipelago’s most populous province said.

Indonesia’s coronavirus death toll rose to 170 on Thursday as the world’s fourth-most populous nation passed South Korea as the country with the highest number of recorded fatalities in Asia after China.

 

The country has confirmed 1,790 infections, while 7,193 tests have been performed out of a population more than 261 million of as of Thursday, far fewer than many smaller neighbours.

[up and down 82]

An interesting article for reading purpose.

 

 

https://theaseanpost.com/article/low-testing-means-low-covid-19-cases

 

 

Low testing means low COVID-19 cases?
 

As of 30 March, over 700,000 people have been infected with the new COVID-19 virus, with 8,000 confirmed cases reported across ASEAN. The virus, which first emerged from China’s central Hubei province has killed over 200 people in Southeast Asia and shows no sign of slowing down. Currently, numerous countries around the world have opted for strict measures to contain the spread of the deadly disease which include city-wide lockdowns and travel curbs. 

 

The COVID-19 virus is said to be highly infectious, spread mainly from person to person through respiratory droplets, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States (US). For example, if a person who has the disease coughs or sneezes, the droplets can land in the mouths or noses of people who are nearby and possibly be inhaled into the lungs. Despite being deadly, not everyone who is infected will present symptoms. Therefore, many cases of those who are infected without obvious signs go unreported as they fail to appear at hospitals for further testing.

 

Indonesia reported its first two cases of COVID-19 in early March and its first death from the disease a few days later. On 30 March, 1,414 people had been infected in the country with 122 fatalities, the highest recorded number of deaths in Southeast Asia. Despite the rather low number of confirmed cases compared to neighbouring Malaysia which has reported over 2,000 cases, researchers believe that there could be tens of thousands of hidden infections across Indonesia. 

 

According to media reports, a study by the Centre for Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases estimates that as few as two percent of Indonesia’s COVID-19 cases have been reported. This means that the true number could be as high as over 30,000 infections. However, many speculate that the numbers could be at more than half a million in a country of 273 million.

 

For ASEAN member states Myanmar and Lao PDR, where the first COVID-19 cases there were reported just last week, the low numbers of reported cases have invited scepticism by observers from around the world. As of 30 March, less than 10 people were officially infected in both countries. 

Many claim that the reason for these seemingly low numbers of cases is simply because of limited test kits.

 

Indonesia’s health ministry data stated that the country which is the fourth most populous in the world has around only 321,544 hospital beds. Local media have reported incidents of the country’s slow process and poor response towards citizens showing signs of the virus.

“I told them that my father showed strong symptoms and was previously rejected by a hospital that had been appointed as a COVID-19 referral centre,” explained a son of a patient in Indonesia to the media. “I lashed out at them and threatened to make their poor response viral. They eventually agreed to an ambulance. We waited for almost three hours for the ambulance to arrive,” he continued. The father had tested positive for the coronavirus two days later and is said to be currently in treatment.

 

Jusuf Kalla, chairman of Indonesia’s Red Cross said that “if the tests are low, then the cases are low”, adding that the true number of cases should be revealed once the country steps up its testing.

 

In Myanmar, it was reported that the country currently has enough test kits to detect suspected cases, according to a World Health Organisation (WHO) official.

 

"For now, Myanmar has some 5,000 or more test kits, which can test some 1,700 people," assured Stephan Paul Jost, the WHO representative to Myanmar. 

However, according to a professor at the University of Medicine 2, in Yangon, the “ministry said no confirmed case until Monday (23 March), but it tested only about 200 suspected patients. It is not enough,” he told the media. He then stated that the reason for this is probably because the country has only one laboratory for coronavirus testing. According to local Myanmar media, the National Health laboratory in Yangon has only seven microbiologists and four testing machines.

 

The same situation applies for another small ASEAN country of nearly seven million people, Lao PDR. Dr Phonebadith Sangxayalath, Director of the National Center for Laboratory and Epidemiology (NCLE), Ministry of Health, stated that the country is well equipped to test for COVID-19 cases. Nevertheless, many believe that the virus is spreading among its people, but remains undetected or untested. It was reported that a doctor from Luang Prabang, a city in Lao PDR, said that “provincial hospitals do not have equipment to test people and they might only refer the worst cases to laboratories in Vientiane.” 

 

Recently, other Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand and Malaysia have developed rapid test kits for COVID-19. With support from a few international organisations, a research team in Thailand led by VISTEC (Vidyasirimedhi Institute of Science and Technology) has developed test kits that can deliver results in under an hour. 

 

Other than that, Malaysia has also introduced “drive-thru” COVID-19 tests which can help citizens get screened for the virus in less than 10 minutes with the results available in about 24 hours. “We are following the South Korean model to test everyone. Test, test, test – and then test again. By testing everyone, we can detect positive cases early and help minimise the spread of COVID-19”, said Dr Nur Abdul Karim, consultant emergency physician and head of Accident & Emergency Services at KPJ Damansara Hospital in the capital city of Kuala Lumpur. 

 

The head of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has also echoed the same sentiment with a simple message for all countries to "test, test, test".

 

 

[up and down 82]

WHO have said many times that Asia and Africa countries are the most vulnerable group for the virus. WHO have noted that there are many poor countries inside the Asia and Africa continent who could not do mass testing as they have limited number of test kids thus endangering the life of their citizens.

 

Who have also categorized the Asia into different categories.

 

First category (Countries who did mass testing for their citizens)

 

3 countries in Asia have adopted their own rapid test kits to test their citizens. South Korea, Thailand and Malaysia have ways to test their citizens efficiently. WHO said that in Asia countries only South Korea and Malaysia have introduced “drive-thru” COVID-19 tests which can help citizens get screened for the virus in less than 10 minutes with the results available in about 24 hours. These 2 countries adopted the same concept which is to test everyone and detect the patients at the early stage to give them treatment.

 

Second category (Asia countries with the ability to do mass testing)

 

WHO said only Asia countries like China, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Chinese Taipei have the ability to do mass testing for testing for their citizens and are in the safe zones.

 

 

Third category (Dangerous Zone)

 

The second largest country in the world India and the forth largest country in the world are both categorized as the dangerous zones in Asia. These 2 countries have large number of population but there are many undetected cases in these countries as they have limited test kids and could not do mass testing. Hence lots of cases go on unreported and undetected which could harm their citizens.

 

Forth category (Countries who have the ability to do more tests but are not testing enough)

 

Japan has the capacity to test a lof of people. Japan whose country is so much bigger than Korea has only conducted 25,000 tests for their citizens thus far and this number is worrying according to WHO standard. Many cases have gone undetected and unreported in Japan as there is no mass testing done in Japan. WHO even said that South Korea whose country so so much smaller compared to Japan have by now done lots of mass testing and have given more than 400,000 of their citizens mass testing.

 

Fifth category (Poor countries with not enough of test kids)

 

WHO said most of the Asia countries fall into dangerous zones as they are poor and could not enough to buy enough test kids to test their citizens. WHO have always said do not be misled by the number of cases in Asia. There are lots of poor countries in Asia who could not even buy test kids to test their own citizens. Thus many cases went undetected in Asia and this is very dangerous, WHO said remember Coronavirus is very dangerous and contagious. A person with the virus can spread to another 4 person just within 1 second. So imagine how many cases have gone undetected in Asia poor countries? They could have spread the virus to more and more people thus harming the lives of their citizens.

[NMQ 243]

We have good numbers here so far: 1217 cases, 37 deaths, 256 recovered, 72 in ICU. But we were poor, on the verge of default before the quarantine and many people want to relax the measures already (ends on april 12th). We are going to crash hard. If not for the virus, the economy will be.

[up and down 82]

1 minute ago, NMQ said:

We have good numbers here so far: 1217 cases, 37 deaths, 256 recovered, 72 in ICU. But we were poor, on the verge of default before the quarantine and many people want to relax the measures already (ends on april 12th). We are going to crash hard. If not for the virus, the economy will be.

 

So do you know how many tests have been conducted in Argentina thus far?

[up and down 82]

@nitinsanker

 

Thank you very much for your response. How is the situation in India now? IS the 21 days lockdown bringing in good news?

[nitinsanker 202]

46 minutes ago, up and down said:

@nitinsanker

 

Thank you very much for your response. How is the situation in India now? IS the 21 days lockdown bringing in good news?

The numbers are going up ........we were before going into the lockdown doing about a 100 cases a day ....... After one week of lockdown we are hitting 600 cases a day.... 

 

One good thing is number of tests have gone up as per ICMR our nodal body for testing we have done 50000 tests till March 31st ...      .. ( almost double the tests done by Japan) 

 

Our average testing is around 4000 tests per day currently with around 100 private test centers doing tests ........ ICMR believes we now have a capacity to do 12000 tests a day which half what South Korea is currently doing....... I think two manufacturers have been given the license to manufacture kits each is claiming they can develop 10000 kits per day, also we are attempting to import kits.......... Will keep the group posted.... 

Edited April 3, 2020 by nitinsanker

[up and down 82]

3 minutes ago, nitinsanker said:

The numbers are going up ........we were before going into the lockdown doing about a 100 cases a day ....... After one week of lockdown we are hitting 600 cases a day.... 

 

One good thing is number of tests have gone up as per ICMR our nodal body for testing we have done 50000 tests till March 31st ...      .. ( almost double the tests done by Japan) 

 

Our average testing is around 4000 tests per day currently with around 100 private test centers doing tests ........ ICMR believes we now have a capacity to do 12000 tests a day which half what South Korea is currently doing....... I think two manufacturers have been given the license to manufacture kits each is claiming they can develop 10000 kits per day, also we are attempting to import kits.......... Will keep the group posted.... 

 

Keep up the good work to combat the virus in India. Well India is the second biggest country in the world after China. Somehow good to hear that India is willing to do more to combat the virus. Well it is understandable that it will not be that easy to do mass testing for the citizens like what South Korea is doing because that is very costly. However, increasing the test in India itself has really helped a lot to combat the virus.

Edited April 3, 2020 by up and down