The Covid-19 Thread: News, Preparation Tips, Etc

Black Ambrosia

Well-Known Member
New CDC coronavirus report: 2nd case confirmed in the U.S.
The new case is a woman in Chicago. Dozens more cases are being investigated.
Jan. 24, 2020, 10:25 AM EST / Updated Jan. 24, 2020, 11:56 AM EST

A second case of the new coronavirus has been confirmed in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Friday morning.

The CDC is also investigating another 61 potential cases from 22 states. Eleven have tested negative, and results from the rest are pending.

The new case, a woman in her 60s, is hospitalized in Chicago, and is reportedly doing well. She had traveled to Wuhan, China, in December, and flew home to Illinois on Jan. 13. She was not symptomatic on the flight home.

The woman had not spent much time in public after arriving back in the U.S., and had not taken public transportation, health officials said. The risk that she had infected others is low, but some close contacts are being monitored for symptoms.

Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said that it's important to keep in mind that there are still many unknowns about the virus.

"This virus was only identified within the past month, and there is much we don't know yet," Messonnier said during a call with journalists Friday.

She added it's likely there will be more cases in the U.S., including among close contacts of travelers.



The Chicago patient called her doctor when she started feeling ill, rather than physically going to a hospital or an urgent care center. Health officials say that this is the right thing to do.

"We ask that any individual who begins to experience symptoms and has recently traveled to Wuhan, or had contact with someone diagnosed with the novel coronavirus to call their health care provider or hospital before seeking treatment, so that appropriate infection control measures can be put into place," Dr. Jennifer Layden, chief medical officer at the Illinois Department of Public Health, said Friday.

The first coronavirus case in the U.S. was reported Tuesday, a man in his 30swho fell ill after returning to his home in Washington state following a trip to Wuhan.

He is said to be recovering, but remained hospitalized at the Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett, Washington on Friday.

Health officials in the U.S. are taking extraordinary steps to try to stop the spread of this illness, including screening passengers who arrive at U.S. airports from China, quarantining them if necessary, and isolating patients with confirmed disease.

Hospitals across the U.S. routinely go through drills to prepare for highly infectious diseases, as was the case at the hospital in Everett just weeks before the first coronavirus patient arrived.

"We had just practiced for housing a patient with Ebola," Dr. George Diaz, head of the infectious disease program at the Providence Regional Medical Center, told NBC News this week. The coronavirus is very different than the Ebola virus, and is likely nowhere near as fatal.

But the training meant health care workers were able to get the man into an isolation room quickly.

The hospital also limited the number of people permitted in the patient's room, using a remote-controlled robot instead to do an exam.

Health officials are also keeping an eye on 43 people the Washington man had been in contact with after returning from China. Those people are not under quarantine, but have been asked to watch for symptoms and take their temperature daily.

By far, most cases of the new coronavirus have been limited to China, where more than 800 cases have been reported. At least 26 people have died.
 

Black Ambrosia

Well-Known Member
I'm trying to be responsible in what I post because I don't have a way to vet it but there are videos online of people dropping dead (allegedly) in the street and dead bodies in hospital hallways because they're overrun with patients and don't have sufficient resources.
 
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Black Ambrosia

Well-Known Member
More than 36 million people now on lockdown as China rushes to build hospital for coronavirus; at least 26 dead
Associated Press |

Jan 24, 2020 | 10:41 AM


A staff member wearing a hazardous materials suit hauls a trash bin on Jan. 23, 2020, at a hospital that reported a coronavirus death in Yichang, in central China's Hubei Province. China is swiftly building a 1,000-bed hospital dedicated to patients infected with a new virus that has killed at least 26 people. (Chinatopix via AP)

China announced Friday that it is swiftly building a 1,000-bed hospital dedicated to patients infected with a new virus that has killed 26 people, sickened hundreds and prompted unprecedented lockdowns of cities during the country's most important holiday.

On the eve of the Lunar New Year, transportation was shut down in at least 13 cities home to more than 36 million people. The cities are Wuhan, where the illness has been concentrated, and 12 of its neighbors in central China's Hubei province.

“To address the insufficiency of existing medical resources,” Wuhan is constructing a hospital modeled after the Xiaotangshan SARS hospital in Beijing, Wuhan authorities said in a Friday notice. The facility will be a prefabricated structure on a 270,000-square-foot lot, slated for completion Feb. 3.

The SARS hospital was built from scratch in 2003 in just six days to treat an outbreak of a similar respiratory virus that had spread from China to more than a dozen countries and killed about 800 people. The hospital featured individual isolation units that looked like rows of tiny cabins.

Normally bustling streets, malls and other public spaces were eerily quiet in Wuhan on the second day of its lockdown. Masks were mandatory in public, and images from the city showed empty store shelves as people stocked up for what could be extended isolation.

Train stations, the airport and subways were closed; police checked incoming vehicles but did not entirely close off roads. Entertainment venues were not spared: karaoke bars, movie theaters and internet cafes in several parts of Hubei were shut down.

Hospitals in Wuhan were grappling with a flood of patients and a lack of supplies. Videos circulating online showed throngs of frantic people in masks lined up for checks. Some users on the Weibo social media site said their family members had sought diagnoses but were turned away at hospitals that were at capacity.

At least eight hospitals in Wuhan issued public calls for donations of masks, goggles, gowns and other protective medical gear, according to notices online. Administrators at Wuhan University People's Hospital set up a group chat on the popular WeChat messaging app to coordinate donations.

The "Fever Control Command Center" of the city of Huanggang also put out a call for donations publicized by the state-run People's Daily, asking for medical supplies, medicine and disinfection equipment. The notice added that at the moment they wouldn't accept supplies from foreign countries.


Coronavirus Chicago
Travelers arrive on a flight from Beijing at Terminal 5 at O’Hare International Airport, Jan. 24, 2020. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)

Authorities were taking precautions around the country. In the capital, Beijing, major public events were canceled, including traditional temple fairs that are a staple of Lunar New Year celebrations. Beijing's Forbidden City, Shanghai Disneyland and a slew of other tourist attractions have been closed indefinitely.

The number of confirmed cases of the new coronavirus has risen to 830, the National Health Commission said. Twenty-six people have died, including the first two deaths outside Hubei and the youngest recorded victim.

The health commission in Hebei, a northern province bordering Beijing, said an 80-year-old man died there after returning from a two-month stay in Wuhan to see relatives. Heilongjiang province in the northeast confirmed a death there but did not give details.

While the majority of deaths have been older patients, a 36-year-old man in Hubei was admitted to the hospital earlier this month after suffering from fever for three days. He died following a sudden cardiac arrest on Jan. 23.

Initial symptoms of the virus can mirror those of the cold and flu, including cough, fever, chest tightening and shortness of breath, but can worsen to pneumonia. The coronavirus family includes the common cold as well as viruses that cause more serious illnesses, such as SARS and Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome, or MERS, which is thought to have originated from camels. The Wuhan outbreak is suspected to have begun from wild animals sold at a food market in the city. The market is closed for investigation.

The vast majority of cases have been in and around Wuhan, but people who visited or had personal connections to infected people were among the scattered cases counted beyond the mainland. South Korea and Japan both confirmed their second cases Friday; Singapore confirmed its third and Thailand its fifth. Cases have also been detected in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, the United States and Vietnam.

Many countries are screening travelers from China and isolating anyone with symptoms.

The World Health Organization decided against declaring the outbreak a global emergency for now. The declaration can increase resources to fight a threat but its potential to cause economic damage makes the decision politically fraught.

Chinese officials have not said how long the shutdowns of the cities will last. While sweeping measures are typical of China's Communist Party-led government, large-scale quarantines are rare around the world, even in deadly epidemics, because of concerns about infringing on people's liberties.

Recalling the government's initial cover-up of SARS, many Chinese are suspicious of the case numbers reported by officials. Authorities in turn have been keen to pledge transparency. China's cabinet, the State Council, announced Friday that it will be collecting information on government departments that have failed in their response to the new outbreak, including “delays, concealment and under-reporting of the epidemic.”

The state broadcaster CCTV's annual Spring Festival Gala program, which attracted more than 1 billion viewers last year, paid tribute to the medical workers fighting the viral outbreak.

“Please believe in China,” the hosts said. “With the most transparent public information ... on the battlefront of the epidemic, we will definitely win."

Tarik Jasarevic, a spokesman for the WHO in Geneva, said Friday that the U.N. agency has no case numbers beyond those already released publicly by China.

But he said the numbers "weren't really the point."

"It's still too early to draw conclusions about how severe the virus is because at the beginning of any outbreak you would focus more on the severe cases," he said. "And then maybe we are missing some mild cases because people will just be a little bit sick and will not have it tested. And they will recover."

"We may see more mild cases as the surveillance intensifies," Jasarevic told reporters. “So the issue is not so much really numbers that we know will go up.”
 

Chicoro

5 Year Shea Anniversary: Started Dec 16th, 2016!
I have a friend who flew to China on Tuesday of this week. I think he is headed for the Shaanxi Province to see those terracota soldiers. It looks like this district is about 400 miles away. He will be in China for three (3) weeks. He has not mentioned anything, but then again the internet is 'limited' in some ways in China.
 

Black Ambrosia

Well-Known Member
I have a friend who flew to China on Tuesday of this week. I think he is headed for the Shaanxi Province to see those terracota soldiers. It looks like this district is about 400 miles away. He will be in China for three (3) weeks. He has not mentioned anything, but then again the internet is 'limited' in some ways in China.
There are more dead and more infected than China is claiming. China lies. This outbreak started in December and those who tried to warn others were censored and/or jailed. This is according to my Chinese friend.
This is what people are saying on social media. Lots of information is being censored. There's no way to know for sure what's happening.

I didn't think much of it initially because either the CDC or WHO praised China for handling this so much better than SARS but now I'm wondering if that can be trusted.
 

Black Ambrosia

Well-Known Member
The other site has pics of people eating bat soup (the pics are gross) and speculating if it caused the virus to spread from animals to humans.

I'm in Michigan and the news just reported that they're testing three people with mild symptoms who traveled to Wuhan or were in contact with people who traveled there.
 

Chicoro

5 Year Shea Anniversary: Started Dec 16th, 2016!
This is what people are saying on social media. Lots of information is being censored. There's no way to know for sure what's happening.

I didn't think much of it initially because either the CDC or WHO praised China for handling this so much better than SARS but now I'm wondering if that can be trusted.

I sent him a text after I posted. He said he's in the opposite direction. China has long censored and limited social media and videos. I hope things are under control.
 

Dee Raven

Well-Known Member
Well I'm concerned. My happy little college town now has the third confirmed case in the US. as of 5 hours ago. I'm already pretty much a hermit, but I will be even more so now. Grocery shopping in the wee hours of the morning, and full out homebody mode until TAMU gets its campus under control. This is also a reminder to try and stay as healthy as possible and stock up the fridge. Hopefully this will be like the others we've seen. The reality is, the only reason these didn't become bigger issues is because health organizations took it so seriously. Or at least that's my impression.
 
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Black Ambrosia

Well-Known Member
Well I'm concerned. My happy little college town now has the third confirmed case in the US. as of 5 hours ago. I'm already pretty much a hobbit, but I will be even more so now. Grocery shopping in the wee hours of the morning, and full out homebody mode until TAMU gets its campus under control. This is also a reminder to try and stay as healthy as possible and stock up the fridge. Hopefully this will be like the others we've seen. The reality is, the only reason these didn't become bigger issues is because health organizations took it so seriously. Or at least that's my impression.
I haven't seen anything about a third confirmed case. Where are you?

I think we benefit from the distance so the impact here will always be delayed. If properly reported at inception, we're better prepared to handle it when travelers introduce it to our environment. I'm skeptical of Chinese health organizations based on what I'm seeing online. Is it really under control or do we not know how bad it is? The tweet I posted upthread claims 90,000 people have already died (presumably in China). If that's real then it's out of control. But the numbers are so high it doesn't seem plausible.
 

Black Ambrosia

Well-Known Member
French health officials confirm three cases of Wuhan coronavirus
Paris, France (CNN) — Three cases of Wuhan coronavirus have been identified in France, the Health Ministry announced Friday. They are the first European cases of the newly discovered virus, officials said.

One patient is a 48-year-old man in the southwestern city of Bordeaux, Health Minister Agnès Buzyn told reporters.

Buzyn said the man traveled to China and visited Wuhan before returning to France on January 22. A day later, he sought medical examination and has remained in isolation since then.

"He's in isolation and he's doing well," Buzyn said.



Two other patients have been admitted to a hospital in Paris, the ministry said in a statement.
"It might be because we set up the tests in a very short time making us capable to identify them," the minister told reporters. "What matters is to contain the fire as fast as possible, that's why we need to know the patient's history, find the people that patient was in contact with, to meet them, speak to them and give them the instructions to first of all stay at home and avoid any contact."

The virus, which was first discovered in the city of Wuhan in December, has spread to every province in China, except the remote autonomous regions of Qinghai and Tibet, with the number of infections rising to more than 1,000 worldwide.

As of Friday, the virus had claimed the lives of at least 41 people in mainland China.

The virus has started to spread around the world. Two cases have been identified in the United States, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The patients, a woman in her 60s and a man in his 30s, traveled to Wuhan and recently returned to the US.
Cases of the virus have been confirmed in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, Japan and Vietnam.
 

Dee Raven

Well-Known Member
I haven't seen anything about a third confirmed case. Where are you?

I think we benefit from the distance so the impact here will always be delayed. If properly reported at inception, we're better prepared to handle it when travelers introduce it to our environment. I'm skeptical of Chinese health organizations based on what I'm seeing online. Is it really under control or do we not know how bad it is? The tweet I posted upthread claims 90,000 people have already died (presumably in China). If that's real then it's out of control. But the numbers are so high it doesn't seem plausible.
College Station, TX. They announced a possible case yesterday, and confirmed it today. It's a student at Texas A&M who I guess was studying abroad.
 

shelli4018

Well-Known Member
Canada has reported a suspected case in/near Toronto.

I’ve taken a small precaution by purchasing N95 face masks from Amazon for my household. There are 22 states with suspected cases (reportedly) but the CDC hasn’t specified which. So yeah....I’m gonna err on the side of caution.
 
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Everything Zen

Well-Known Member
Canada has reported a suspected case in/near Toronto.

I’ve taken a small precaution by purchasing N95 face masks from Amazon for my household. There are 22 states with suspected cases (reportedly) but the CDC hasn’t specified which. So yeah....I’m gonna err on the side of caution.

make sure you get them properly fitted
 
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