[OFF TOPIC] Coronavirus Pandemic

[up and down 82]

According to the news below these 3 countries (Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan are seeing huge spike of cases which lead to their second wave of their virus to hit their country. As mentioned in the news below, the source of the virus is imported from overseas.

 

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/coronavirus-cases-hong-kong-singapore-taiwan-symptoms-a9460356.html

[up and down 82]

More news about the spike of cases.

 

https://www.vox.com/2020/4/17/21213787/coronavirus-asia-waves-hong-kong-singapore-taiwan

 

Excerpts from the long article above.

 

Why Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore saw another coronavirus wave — and will likely see more

Hong Kong’s bump in coronavirus infections, beginning in March, was relatively small, and largely attributed to people returning to the territory from places overseas where the coronavirus was then spreading rapidly, such as the United Kingdom, Europe, and the United States.

 

That created tensions in the territory, as residents blamed returning expats for the spread. Authorities also identified small clusters of local transmissions, including at Lan Kwai Fong, a district in Hong Kong with a lot of bars that’s popular for its nightlife.

 

In response to the new rise in cases, Hong Kong on March 25 fully closed its borders to non-residents for a two-week period, allowing exceptions for visitors from mainland China, Macau, and Taiwan as long as they hadn’t traveled anywhere else in the 14 days prior.

 

Schools had already been closed in Hong Kong until at least April 20, but Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam added new measures at the end of March, including a ban on gatherings of four or more people and the closure of arcades, gyms, and movie theaters. Restaurants had to limit the number of people allowed inside, take the temperatures of everyone entering their establishments, and provide hand sanitizer to patrons.

 

In April, all bars and pubs were also ordered to close, followed on April 10 by beauty and massage parlors. All of these orders will be in effect until at least April 23. Hong Kong’s government also extended travel restrictions indefinitely and ordered that, starting April 8, all travelers arriving to Hong Kong, symptomatic or not, would need to undergo a coronavirus test and then enter a 14-day quarantine.

 

As of April 17, Hong Kong has just over 1,000 coronavirus cases (up from 400 when the new restrictions began in late March), with just single-digit increases by the day. At least one Hong Kong lawmaker has said it may be time to loosen some restrictions again.

 

Taiwan, too, attributed its spike to imported cases, warning Taiwanese people to avoid traveling outside the island and risk bringing the disease back. On March 19, Taiwan barred all foreign nationals (with some exceptions, including for diplomats) from entering the island. The government also barred any travelers from transiting through Taiwan, and required any returnees to quarantine for 14 days.

 

As of April 14, Taiwan had nearly 400 total cases, 338 of which came from outside the island. Though it recently had no new cases for the first time in more than a month, Taiwan is not letting up travel restrictions until the pandemic is under control elsewhere.

 

“Of course, we hope it has passed,” Taiwan’s Health Minister Chen Shih-chung said at a press conference this week, according to Reuters. “But we still need to be on our guard. Of course we feel happy at no new cases today.”

 

Singapore also dealt with a wave of imported cases. Now, though, the city-state’s latest rise in cases is being attributed to migrant workers, who are often crowded together in dormitories. Singapore has taken strict measures to sequester these workers, including by putting four facilities, containing some 50,000 people, under quarantine. The government is also housing healthy workers who work in essential services in separate facilities, so they can continue to work.

 

Singapore also instituted in early April what it called a “circuit breaker” — basically a partial lockdown by a much nicer name. Singapore hadn’t needed to do that before, but as it saw cases surge past 1,000, it embraced more stringent measures. Now, people can only go outside for essential services, to visit the doctor, or do solo exercise, and are required to keep their distance. Restaurants are allowed to stay open for takeout or delivery only. Schools are closed. These measures will be in place until May 4.

 

Singapore has over 5,900 total confirmed cases as of April 18; infections jumped more than 1,000 in just three days this week, a sign that the country does not yet have infections under control again. As some critics have pointed out, Singapore’s treatment of migrants, and reluctance to let them put real roots down there, likely helped create this crisis that threatens the rest of the city-state, too.

 

“Suppression and lift” might become the new normal. That is, if the world can get there.

 

“This is a reminder that this virus is not going to go away. You have to look at the experience of the last four months in Wuhan to realize that even the most extensive population-movement restrictions ever put in place for a public health issue in modern times has not ended virus transmission within China,” Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota, told me.

 

Things like antibody tests will help people and governments know who was infected, and whether they have immunity to the disease, which might also help to open up countries. But social distancing — the lifting and easing — might still need to exist.

 

Because even if countries can successfully test and trace, these tools are much more effective if every country is doing them. As long as the pandemic is active and alive somewhere around the world, the risk of new cases emerging is everpresent.

 

“Epidemic or pandemic control in the world very much depends on the weak links,” Jonas, the scientist at Harvard, said. “The whole system is as good as its weakest links.”

[up and down 82]

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3080492/coronavirus-cases-surge-can-singapores-health-care

 

Excerpts from the long article above.

 

As coronavirus cases surge, can Singapore’s health care system handle the pressure?

 

Singapore’s Covid-19 cases have risen sixfold since the start of the month, due to outbreaks in crowded migrant worker dormitories

 

The authorities say hospitals can cope for now but are ‘stretched’ amid concerns over availability of beds, testing facilities, ventilators and workers

As Singapore experiences a drastic spike in Covid-19 cases – which grew tenfold over March to hit 1,000 on April 1, then rose almost sixfold to 5,992 as of Saturday – the authorities are on alert to ensure the health care system can withstand this growing pressure.

 

Experts such as infectious diseases specialist Leong Hoe Nam say hospitals can cope for now, but they are concerned about admissions outpacing the number of discharged patients.

 

As of Saturday, there were 2,563 coronavirus patients in hospitals and another 2,678 in newly converted community isolation facilities, with 740 having made a full recovery.

 

Singapore had 11,321 acute care beds in public and private hospitals as of last year. Official data for last month shows eight public hospitals were at least three-quarters full, but at the time, there were only 802 coronavirus cases and a quarter of these patients had recovered, with some in isolation facilities and 420 in hospitals.

Singapore’s public hospitals were filling up, said Professor Teo Yik Ying, dean of the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health at the National University of Singapore (NUS). Associate Professor Jeremy Lim, from the same school, said last week when there were almost 2,000 cases in hospitals that these represented “more than 15 per cent of all the hospital beds”.

 

The concern now is how many more infections there are within the migrant worker community, 323,000 of whom live in 43 mega-dormitories and 1,200 smaller ones across the island and do low-wage jobs shunned by Singaporeans. About 4,162 of these workers are infected with the virus, forming close to 70 per cent of the country’s positive cases.

 

The spread has been fuelled by the crowded dormitories these workers live in, with 12 to 20 men in each room. The government is now aggressively testing workers, having tested about 5,000 in the past few days.

[up and down 82]

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/explained/article/3080466/how-did-migrant-worker-dormitories-become-singapores-biggest

 

Excerpts from the long article above.

 

How did this happen when Singapore seemed to be successfully flattening the curve?

Singapore reported its first Covid-19 infection on January 23, but seemed to be successfully containing the disease, with just 102 cases as of February 29. That quickly ballooned to 1,000 by April 1 as soaring infection rates worldwide prompted overseas-based residents of the city state to return home – some of whom were carrying the disease, sparking a second wave of infections through imported cases.

 

As the country focused on this rise in imported cases, it missed the infections happening among migrant workers. National development minister Lawrence Wong said many of the workers had continued working as their symptoms were mild. “We did drop the ball on foreign workers,” wrote former Singapore diplomat Bilahari Kausikan, an active commentator on social media.

 

The fundamental issue is the poor living conditions faced by these men. They sleep on bunk beds, 12 to 20 people packed into a room ventilated by small fans attached to the ceiling or walls. Hundreds of men on each floor share communal toilets and showering facilities.

 

As early as March 23, non-profit Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2) had written to local media that these conditions were ripe for a Covid-19 cluster. On top of this, workers are transported squeezed into the back of a truck, and not showing up for work leads to a fine – so many of them work despite being ill.

 

“We at TWC2 knew it was only a matter of time before Covid-19 would begin to spread in worker dormitories, where conditions are nearly ideal for transmission of infection,” the organisation said on April 3. “It gives us no pleasure to be proven right so soon after.”

 

Authorities have since set up medical outposts at dormitories and reassured workers that their salaries would be paid while they were locked down. In a video address, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong spoke directly to the families of those affected, saying Singapore appreciates the workers’ contributions. “We feel responsible for their well-being. We will do our best to take care of their health, livelihood and welfare here, and to let them go home, safe and sound, to you,” he said.

[heywoodu 15,174]

9 hours ago, Olympian1010 said:

I feel like neither side is right here. We shouldn’t be like Europe where we don’t let kids go outside, and force everyone to stay in their homes,

 

Not exactly the case here though, people are encouraged to make sure they get some fresh air and go for a walk or something (keeping the distance in mind of course). Staying in a decent shape both physically and mentally is more important now than ever and basic things like going for a walk or some exercise help in both of those aspects.

[Olympian1010 7,989]

27 minutes ago, heywoodu said:

 

Not exactly the case here though, people are encouraged to make sure they get some fresh air and go for a walk or something (keeping the distance in mind of course). Staying in a decent shape both physically and mentally is more important now than ever and basic things like going for a walk or some exercise help in both of those aspects.

The Dutch are pretty lenient like California though. I was talking about the Spain’s, Czechia’s, and Slovakia’s of the world.

[hckošice 14,899]

6 minutes ago, Olympian1010 said:

The Dutch are pretty lenient like California though. I was talking about the Spain’s, Czechia’s, and Slovakia’s of the world.

 

wait. we don´t have any curfew here. the only curfew was during Easter, otherwise people are free to go run, biking or whatever they want...just not gathering and must wear masks...they are just asked to stay at home (but not ordered) and people are mostly disciplined this is why the streets are generally empty, but if you want to go shopping, running or I don´t know just watching the grass rising you are free to do by wearing mask and beiing with max 1 more person in company

[OlympicsFan 859]

If you look at the dutch numbers provided by the Johns Hopkins University, then it seems pretty likely that they have a recovery rate of less than 50 % so far:

They have around 31k cases and roughly 4k deaths. During the last 14 days they had on average more than 1k new cases every day. Since people who have been tested positive during the last 14 days can't be considered recovered, they at best have 13k recoveries (31k total cases - 4k deaths - 14k active cases). Therefore at the absolute best the Netherlands could have a recovery rate of 42 % and that's only if we assume that noone who has tested positive more than 14 days ago and hasn't died isn't considered recovered yet ...

If we assume that at least 1k of those people haven't recovered yet, then their recovery rate at best would be 39 % and if we assume that at least 2k of those people haven't recovered yet, then their recovery rate at best would be 35 %.

[Olympian1010 7,989]

1 minute ago, hckosice said:

 

wait. we don´t have any curfew here. the only curfew was durig Easter, otherwise people are free to go run, biking or whatever they want...just not gathering and must wear masks...they are just asked to stay at home and people are mostly disciplined this is why the streets are generally empty, but if you want to go oshopping, running or I don´t know just watching the grass rising you are free to do by wearing mask and beiing with max 1 more person in company

Well, y'all have kind of been leading the strict response in the West (which says a lot about the strong will of Slovakians I might add). Plus you locked down slums. I’m not saying either of those are wrong, I’m just arguing for balance between what seem to be the two very popular extremes in my own country (using other countries as an example). 

[Sindo 1,511]

6 minutes ago, Olympian1010 said:

Well, y'all have kind of been leading the strict response in the West (which says a lot about the strong will of Slovakians I might add). Plus you locked down slums. I’m not saying either of those are wrong, I’m just arguing for balance between what seem to be the two very popular extremes in my own country (using other countries as an example). 

 

Slovakia and the Netherlands measures are nothing comparing them to the Italian ones We are in a total lockdown since March 8th, you can go out only to buy food/medicines or for medical reasons. Parks have been closed, sports is allowed only individually and near your house.