up and down

Thank you.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2020/03/17/coronavirus-how-countries-across-globe-responding-covid-19/5065867002/ These countries are doing the best and worst jobs fighting coronavirus LONDON – Keep calm and carry on, said Britain, the country with the least restrictive coronavirus measures in Europe (before sharply altering course Monday night amid a new "catastrophic" warning about how many people could die). Batten down the hatches, says China, the nation that is not far from declaring victory over the COVID-19 epidemic that swept its Hubei province. "Test, test, test," says Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization. And the United States? Which countries should it look to for guidance about how to combat a disease that has infected more than 183,000 worldwide and killed over 7,100? The majority of global public health experts believe that countries need to act quickly and decisively to reduce what Robbert Muggah, a leading Brazil-based risk and security specialist, said "represents the most significant threat to population health and political and economic stability in a generation." These measures include easy and efficient access to testing and results, rigorous contact tracing, consistent science-based messaging, quarantines and a genuine commitment to clamping down on socializing. "If you have a fire on your hands, we all know you have to stamp it out fast," said Nicholas Chater, a professor of behavioral science at Warwick Business School, in central England. "There's no point thinking: 'Well, we don't want to put it out too soon.'" But Chater added that while scientists are learning more about COVID-19 every day, publics around the world will need to get used to something they don't like: uncertainty. "It could be that we can hold this thing back. We just don't know. No amount of modeling can fix that problem," he said, noting that, with a vaccine potentially months or more away, scientists need time to understand the virus's genetics, how it mutates, transmission rates, the viability of cures and the experiences of different countries. Still, while it may be too early to draw definitive conclusions about how to respond to COVID-19, some countries have taken actions that have appeared to yield results, while others are struggling to contain and combat deepening public health crises. Australia The Australian government activated its emergency response to COVID-19 on February 27, designating it a global pandemic much earlier than the World Health Organization and any other advanced economy in the Group of Seven nations. Michael Wallach, a vaccines expert at the University of Technology Sydney, said that this enabled authorities there to quickly release emergency funding and tax breaks, and bought precious time for its hospitals to prepare for a potential flood of patients. As of March 17, the death toll for the country stands at five, with more than 375 confirmed cases. Everyone traveling to Australia must self-isolate for 14 days, whether or not they have had potential exposure to the new coronavirus. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has stopped short of enforcing school closures and self-isolation for the general population. Wallach said that Australia's early labeling of COVID-19 as a pandemic has been helpful for preparedness, but it also brought "early panic," noting the country was among the first to see consumers stockpile toilet paper. Britain Prime Minister Boris Johnson has acknowledged that Britain is facing its "greatest public health crisis" in decades. As of March 17, Britain's outbreak has lagged behind its European counterparts, with more than 1,950 infections and 71 deaths. Johnson has conceded that "many loved ones will die." Yet from the start he has also appeared to pursue a relatively laissez-faire, and controversial, policy based on the idea that, because COVID-19 will spread widely in society, the country's best bet will be to try to get to "herd" or majority immunity as quickly as possible. The thinking behind this is that it will protect the country in the long term if, as happened with the 1918 Spanish Flu, a highly fatal second wave of infections occurs at some point in the future. The concept is not only a massive political gamble. Medical experts say evidence to support the theory won't be available until people who have the disease have recovered and been studied for months. It's also not clear how long any immunity would last. Infections could reoccur. Late Monday, Johnson dramatically changed tactics after researchers at Imperial College London projected that around 250,000 people in Britain would die if "chains of transmission" for the virus weren't immediately slowed or broken. The British government now wants every Briton over the age of 70, the most vulnerable age group, to stay at home for around three months. Johnson has also urged "non-essential contact" with others and all unnecessary travel to stop. Yet pubs, restaurants, schools and entertainment venues remain largely open. Researchers at Imperial College says the restrictions may need to last for as long as 18 months. Germany, France, Spain Authorities in Germany have adopted relatively strict measures, including closing all schools and day-care centers. Events with more than 50 people have been banned. Museums, movie theaters, gyms, swimming pools and nightclubs have also been temporarily shuttered. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has also outlawed overnight stays in hotels unless absolutely "necessary and expressly not for tourist purposes." The measures introduced by Merkel follow an abrupt about-face for Germany's leader. For several weeks, she had argued for close coordination with fellow European Union member states to slow the spread of the virus. But amid a fast rise in the number of infections, Merkel closed Germany's borders with Austria, Switzerland, France, Luxembourg and Denmark. Germany has over 7,636 confirmed cases and 12 deaths. French President Emmanuel Macron has also strongly limited movement in France for the next two weeks. Only trips to the doctor and to food stores will be allowed. Macron also delayed elections. As of March 17, France had more than 6,600 cases of the virus, including 148 deaths. Spain, the fourth most virus-infected nation after China, has taken similar actions to France. It has more than 11,100 cases and 491 fatalities. Israel More than 300 people have been diagnosed in Israel, with the number quickly rising. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has closed Israel's borders to all foreigners. On Tuesday, Netanyahu announced that the country's highly secretive Shin Bet internal security service would soon begin deploying its highly sophisticated counter-terrorism technology to help curb the spread of COVID-19 in Israel. The agency’s capabilities are normally used to track Palestinian militants. In a statement, Shin Bet head Nadav Argaman acknowledged that using these digital tools to keep track of sick Israeli citizens deviates from the agency's typical operations, but he said the goal was still in line with its overall mission of "saving lives." Netanyahu said the technology had never been used before on civilians and would involve a certain degree of violation of privacy. He approved its use for 30 days. Iran Iran's authorities for days denied the risk the outbreak posed even as a high number of its lawmakers have fallen ill with the disease and it has also not spared top officials, including Iran's senior vice-president, Cabinet ministers, Revolutionary Guard members, health ministry officials and close aides to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The virus has killed 988 people amid over 16,000 cases, according to Iran's health ministry, although there are concerns the country may be either underreporting infections or simply not know the scale of its outbreak. Years of western sanctions have puts its health system under extreme strain and officials have been slow to enforce quarantines in some areas. Khamenei issued a religious ruling, or fatwa, Tuesday prohibiting "unnecessary" travel after earlier warning Iranians that "millions" could die if they don't start heeding travel restrictions and public health guidance, such as staying away from religious shrines. Sources in Iran told USA TODAY that people in Iran have still been widely going about their business in public despite calls from the authorities for people to stay home. Italy Italy has taken over from China as the epicenter of COVID-19, according to the World Health Organization. It has almost 31,500 infections and more than 2,500 deaths, the majority of them in its wealthy northern regions, where there are world-class hospitals. Intensive care beds and ventilators are in such short supply in some areas that the Italian College of Anesthesia, Analgesia, Resuscitation and Intensive Care has drawn up guidelines for doctors about how to manage the crisis if the outbreak intensifies. Among the considerations: prioritizing treatment for those under the age of 80 who don't have any "co-morbidities" - underlying health conditions. With too many patients to care for, many needing life support machines, medical staff would need to effectively choose who lives and who dies. It's a form of triage medicine usually only seen in wartime. Italy has imposed a near-total lockdown on its citizens, with only supermarkets and drug stores open to the public. There are curfews and travel restrictions and its normally bustling piazzas and squares and historic sites are virtually empty. It's too soon to tell if Italy's severe measures are working. Last week, an Italian citizen named Giovanni Locatelli shared Facebook footage comparing a Lombardy newspaper’s obituary section on Feb. 9, when it took up just one page, to a copy on March 13, when 10 pages were needed to commemorate the dead. Singapore Few countries battling the virus have been as successful as Singapore. It has 243 cases and no deaths and its rate of recoveries has outpaced infections. According to Michael Merson, director of the SingHealth Duke-NUS Global Health Institute and the Wolfgang Joklik Professor of Global Health at Duke University, the country has a number of factors that are hard to replicate: an excellent health system; strict virus testing, tracing and containment programs; a small population; and citizens who are largely accepting of what the government orders to them to do. "There's strong government leadership, but also trust in the government," said Merson, who used to run the World Health Organization's anti-AIDS program. "Every time a case is identified there is a very strong action plan to identify contacts. It's also very good at promoting hand-washing and keeping people at a safe distance from one another." Merson said Singapore has allowed businesses and some universities to stay open but with very strict guidelines about the size of gatherings (25 or under). "They take prudent steps at prevention, but they haven't entirely shut the country down. They also have experience with SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome, a much more deadly virus), which has given them some confidence with how to deal with coronavirus," he said. Still, worryingly, Singapore reported 17 news cases on March 16, the highest number it has reported in a single day. Eleven of the cases were imported from outside Singapore. It has now imposed 14-day quarantines for all arrivals into the country. South Korea Most of South Korea's infections are linked to a quasi-Christian sect. But the Asian country has still become one of the countries hardest-hit by COVID-19 outside China, with more than 8,000 infections and at least 75 deaths. It has also put in place a rigorous screening program, with more than 200,000 people tested, about 1 in every 250 people. Testing is fast (about 10 minutes) and free (the government pays) and the results are usually sent by text within 24 hours. South Korea was also among the first countries to roll out a drive-through testing center and it has a well-functioning virus-contact-tracing system. South Korea, like Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong, is one of a number of places in Asia where authorities have appeared to have had some success "flattening the curve," or potentially spreading out the number of its coronavirus cases over a longer period so that health systems can have time to mitigate the impact of the disease. But Merson said that it's not clear how long countries can continue to "flatten the curve" and if COVID-19 will only roar back once current control measures are phased out. "We need to watch closely what happens in China," he said, referring to its decision to start phasing in school openings and restart factories and businesses in some areas. China Despite receiving early criticism for trying to cover up the outbreak, China has been able to turn the tide of an infection that is now rapidly spreading through the global population. It reported fewer than 20 new infections and 14 deaths on Monday, bringing its total number of cases to 80,860, of which more than 67,000 patients have recovered. China enacted sweeping measures that forced people inside for weeks, banned all forms of public gatherings and mobilized almost 20,000 medical staff from all over the country to Hubei. At the virus's peak, 120 million school kids were taught online. Huiyao Wang, a senior adviser to China's government, told USA TODAY in a phone interview from Beijing that the U.S. and other western nations need to do even more to combat COVID-19 than they are doing now, including more harsh restrictions. "I worry that the economic impact may now cause more casualties than the virus itself," he said, adding that the during the worst of the outbreak authorities in China visited every single household in the affected areas, meticulously took temperatures and isolated the sick in large stadiums and other venues for observation and treatment. "I understand that some of the Chinese experience can't be transferred, but since we have been dealing with this for months now they should take our advice," he said. referring to what he described as little high-level contact between the Trump administration and President Xi Jinping's government over the pandemic. In fact, relations have appeared frosty in recent days. On Monday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said China was spreading "disinformation and outlandish rumors" and needed to stop blaming the U.S. for the spread of the disease first detected in China. Pompeo's comments followed a false suggestion on Twitter from Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian, shared and retweeted by other Chinese diplomats, that COVID-19 may have originated with the U.S. Army. "We can help with how to build temporary hospitals, we can transfer some of our technology," said Huiyao Wang. "Let's have an online summit right now." United States Cities and towns across the U.S. have already started closing schools, restaurants, sports stadiums, entertainment venues and encouraging "social distancing." President Donald Trump has urged Americans to refrain from gathering in groups of more than ten people to stem the spread of the virus. He has also declared a national emergency unleashing billions of dollars as part of a raft of measures aimed at bringing a roiling public health crisis – and a growing economic and financial one – under control. In a media briefing at the White House on Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin proposed a $1 trillion coronavirus economic stimulus package. Trump now appears to be taking COVID-19 seriously. "If everyone makes this change or these critical changes and sacrifices now, we will rally together as one nation and we will defeat the virus, and we are going to have a big celebration all together. With several weeks of focused action, we can turn the corner and turn it quickly," he said in a news briefing Monday. "A lot of progress has been made." However, Trump continues to reject suggestions his administration could have taken action earlier, such as seeing that more testing was available, to ward off COVID-19's threat to Americans and his earlier public comments on the matter are littered with attempts to downplay the crisis. "We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China, and we have it under control," he said during an a TV interview from Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 22, just a day after the CDC reported the first travel-related case in the country.

You are right about this.

We need to learn from South Korea on how to handle this pandemic well. Thus far South Korea has done the best job. Mass testing to detect the virus early and curb the virus before it becomes widespread. https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/03/coronavirus-cases-have-dropped-sharply-south-korea-whats-secret-its-success Europe is now the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic. Case counts and deaths are soaring in Italy, Spain, France, and Germany, and many countries have imposed lockdowns and closed borders. Meanwhile, the United States, hampered by a fiasco with delayed and faulty test kits, is just guessing at its COVID-19 burden, though experts believe it is on the same trajectory as countries in Europe. Amid these dire trends, South Korea has emerged as a sign of hope and a model to emulate. The country of 50 million appears to have greatly slowed its epidemic; it reported only 74 new cases today, down from 909 at its peak on 29 February. And it has done so without locking down entire cities or taking some of the other authoritarian measures that helped China bring its epidemic under control. “South Korea is a democratic republic, we feel a lockdown is not a reasonable choice,” says Kim Woo-Joo, an infectious disease specialist at Korea University. South Korea’s success may hold lessons for other countries—and also a warning: Even after driving case numbers down, the country is braced for a resurgence. Behind its success so far has been the most expansive and well-organized testing program in the world, combined with extensive efforts to isolate infected people and trace and quarantine their contacts. South Korea has tested more than 270,000 people, which amounts to more than 5200 tests per million inhabitants—more than any other country except tiny Bahrain, according to the Worldometer website. The United States has so far carried out 74 tests per 1 million inhabitants, data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show. South Korea’s experience shows that “diagnostic capacity at scale is key to epidemic control,” says Raina MacIntyre, an emerging infectious disease scholar at the University of New South Wales, Sydney. “Contact tracing is also very influential in epidemic control, as is case isolation,” she says. Yet whether the success will hold is unclear. New case numbers are declining largely because the herculean effort to investigate a massive cluster of more than 5000 cases—60% of the nation’s total—linked to the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, a secretive, messianic megachurch, is winding down. But because of that effort, “We have not looked hard in other parts of Korea,” says Oh Myoung-Don, an infectious disease specialist at Seoul National University. New clusters are now appearing. Since last week, authorities have reported many new infections, including 129 linked to a Seoul call center. “This could be the initiation of community spread,” through Seoul and its surrounding Gyeonggi province, Kim says. The region is home to 23 million people. Lessons from MERS South Korea learned the importance of preparedness the hard way. In 2015, a South Korean businessman came down with Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) after returning from a visit to three Middle Eastern countries. He was treated at three South Korean health facilities before he was diagnosed with MERS and isolated. By then, he had set off a chain of transmission that infected 186 and killed 36, including many patients hospitalized for other ailments, visitors, and hospital staff. Tracing, testing, and quarantining nearly 17,000 people quashed the outbreak after 2 months. The specter of a runaway epidemic alarmed the nation and dented the economy. “That experience showed that laboratory testing is essential to control an emerging infectious disease,” Kim says. In addition, Oh says, “The MERS experience certainly helped us to improve hospital infection prevention and control.” So far, there are no reports of infections of COVID-19 among South Korean health care workers, he says. Legislation enacted since then gave the government authority to collect mobile phone, credit card, and other data from those who test positive to reconstruct their recent whereabouts. That information, stripped of personal identifiers, is shared on social media apps that allow others to determine whether they may have crossed paths with an infected person. After the novel coronavirus emerged in China, Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) raced to develop its tests and cooperated with diagnostic manufacturers to develop commercial test kits. The first test was approved on 7 February, when the country had just a few cases, and distributed to regional health centers. Just 11 days later, a 61-year-old woman, known as “Case 31,” tested positive. She had attended 9 and 16 February services at the Shincheonji megachurch in Daegu, about 240 kilometers southeast of Seoul, already feeling slightly ill. Upward of 500 attendees sit shoulder to shoulder on the floor of the church during 2-hour services, according to local news reports. The country identified more than 2900 new cases just in the next 12 days, the vast majority Shincheonji members. On 29 February alone, KCDC reported more than 900 new cases, bringing the cumulative total to 3150 and making the outbreak the largest by far outside mainland China. The surge initially overwhelmed testing capabilities and KCDC’s 130 disease detectives couldn’t keep up, Kim says. Contact tracing efforts were concentrated on the Shincheonji cluster, in which 80% of those reporting respiratory symptoms proved positive, compared with only 10% in other clusters. High-risk patients with underlying illnesses get priority for hospitalization, says Chun Byung-Chul, an epidemiologist at Korea University. Those with moderate symptoms are sent to repurposed corporate training facilities and spaces provided by public institutions, where they get basic medical support and observation. Those who recover and test negative twice are released. Close contacts and those with minimal symptoms whose family members are free of chronic diseases and who can measure their own temperatures are ordered to self-quarantine for 2 weeks. A local monitoring team calls twice daily to make sure the quarantined stay put and to ask about symptoms. Quarantine violators face up to 3 million won ($2500) fines. If a recent bill becomes law, the fine will go up to 10 million won and as much as a year in jail. In spite of the efforts, the Daegu-Gyeongbuk region ran out of space for the seriously ill. Four people isolated at home, waiting for hospital beds, were rushed to emergency rooms when their conditions deteriorated, only to die there, according to local media. Still, the numbers of new cases have dropped the past 2 weeks, aided by voluntary social distancing, both in the Daegu-Gyeongbuk region and nationwide. The government advised people to wear masks, wash their hands, avoid crowds and meetings, work remotely, and to join online religious services instead of going to churches. Those with fevers or respiratory illnesses are urged to stay home and watch their symptoms for 3 to 4 days. “People were shocked by the Shincheonji cluster,” Chun says, which boosted compliance. Less than 1 month after Case 31 emerged, “The cluster is coming under control,” Oh says. Yet new clusters are emerging, and for 20% of confirmed cases, it’s unclear how they became infected, suggesting there is still undetected community spread. “As long as this uncertainty remains, we cannot say that the outbreak has peaked,” Chun says. More data needed The government hopes to control new clusters in the same way it confronted the one in Shincheonji. The national testing capacity has reached a staggering 15,000 tests per day. There are 43 drive-through testing stations nationwide, a concept now copied in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. In the first week of March, the Ministry of the Interior also rolled out a smartphone app that can track the quarantined and collect data on symptoms. Chun says scientists are eager to see more epidemiological data. “We are literally stamping our feet,” Chun says. KCDC releases the basic counts of patients, their age and gender, and how many are linked to clusters. “That is not enough,” Chun says. He and others would like to study detailed individual patient data, which would enable epidemiologists to model the outbreak and determine the number of new infections triggered by each case, also known as the basic reproductive number or R0; the time from infection to the onset of symptoms; and whether early diagnosis improved patients’ outcomes. (South Korea has had 75 deaths so far, an unusually low mortality rate, although the fact that Shincheonji church members are mostly young may have contributed.) Chun says a group of epidemiologists and scientists has proposed partnering with KCDC to gather and share such information, “and we are waiting for their response.” Kim says medical doctors are also planning to share details of the clinical features of COVID-19 cases in the country in forthcoming publications. “We hope our experience will help other countries control this COVID-19 outbreak.”

WHO side keep saying the same thing. Be prepared all the time. Test and test nonstop. Unfortunately this all fell on deaf ears. Reaslity is how many countries have the capability and capacity to do mass testing? Here is the rating for all the different countries. Death/positive % Best: Singapore - 0.3% Thailand - 0.3% Taiwan - 0.7% Hng Kong - 0.8% Good: Malaysia - 1.2% United States - 1.4% South Korea - 1.5% Moderate: India - 2.2% Japan - 3.4% China - 4.6% United Kingdom - 4.9% Poor: France - 5.7% Phillippines - 6.7% Worrying: Iran - 7.6% Indonesia - 8.7 Italy - 9.2% People say statistics given online is just a number. However how truthful can those numbers be? Countries who have the ability to do mass testing will surely have high numbers of cases when they are able to do mass testing on their citizens on daily basis. On the other hand poor countries with poor healthcare may not be able to test their citizens daily and not able to carry out mass testing resulting in lots of undetected cases underway. This is not going to be a good sign. So which one will we choose here? 1. Countries doing mass testing hence lots of cases detected and lots of cases reported on daily basis. 2. Countries who cannot do mass tesing due to poor healthcare system and not having enough of test kids so many cases go unreported and we only get to see low number of cases on daily basis. Which country is safer? The country with mass testing or no lack of testing? Hmm.... this is where we see lots of differences.

Yes you are right.

Country, Other Total Cases New Cases Total Deaths New Deaths Total Recovered Active Cases Serious, Critical Tot Cases/ 1M pop Tot Deaths/ 1M pop USA 85,594 +159 1,300 +5 1,868 82,426 2,122 259 4 China 81,340 +55 3,292 +5 74,588 3,460 1,034 57 2 Italy 80,589 8,215 10,361 62,013 3,612 1,333 136 This data itself is too shocking to believe. USA is the top country with the most cases now overtaking China.

Now US is the country with the highest number of cases overtaking China. It is indeed amazing how US cases can spike and go up so much. Italy is now at number 3. But just kike how you say it is worrying in Italy too.

Me too. I am against the part of beating. Doing some exercise still alright. Somehow I guess those people in India are quite obstinate type. So I guess lolice have no choice but to use force on them and beat them up.

Watch the video clips myself and wow the amount ot violence used just to keep people at home. Amazing things done to ensure people stay at home.

Good news to hear about this, Massive testing and increasing the testing kids are the best resources to curb the virus.

Ha ha those ancient days.

Totally agreed that people should follow doctor's orders.

You are right about this part.

Yes you are right too. Lots of countries are racing against time to find the vaccine for Coronavirus.

The president also plan to test this drug on people as well to see it works out or not. So we may see more death after this? Ha ha.

All in a mess. A president gave the wrong advice. Citizens follow the advice given. A citizen died. Pretty sad tale.

Thank you very much for your explanation. I get your meaning already.

Thisis equally horrible to hear as well. How come this thing can happen?

This is a sad news to hear. The whole family might be infected next. Hope they can contain the virus fast.

This may be able to help a lot too.

I guess there is no choice for India. It is very difficult to do mass testing like South Korea in India. Lockdown is one of those ways to contain the virus. In South Korea there is no lockdown but they only implement mass testing to detect the patients early.

So pitifu; Be strong and hope you can go through this period of time.

This is serious. Oh no.

This is serious. Hope everyone in Argentina stay safe and healthy.