Wuhan virus.

[Workingman]

And some schools which had pupils on skiing trips to Italy are closing despite PHE saying it is not necessary. It looks as though people are taking things into their own hands, let's hope this is not a sign of mild panic setting in.

[Suff]

Well Italy has racked up over 300 cases pretty quickly, Iran is also ramping up cases and it is spreading over the Middle East right now.

It appears that Africa is almost clear and South America is clear.

All we can do is watch right now and see how each country copes.

I have been reading up on the Tesla factory in China and the lengths they are going to are exhaustive even though there are no cases in the province.

I noticed that Chinese medical staff are now 100% clothed and have full facial filter masks. It appears that the initial casual approach with gloves and a material face mask was wholly insufficient. They have learned.

[cromwell]

Well, so far we've had SARS from China, bird flu from China and now coronavirus from China. Instead of the BBC giving it the usual "It's all the government's fault... surely.. More Needs to Be Done" routine, they might be asking why China produces so much of these diseases?
I wonder what they'll name the next Chinese death pox?

[Suff]

Covid-20??

So we are all strapped in and the finger is hovering over the launch button. Two new cases in the UK from two different hotpots. Schools are starting to close and the medical services are working round the clock to identify people who stayed in these two hotspots and returned to the UK.

South Korea quietly slips into more new cases per day than China, Italy keeps growing and the Middle East is only beginning to see the starting growth.

There has been a second case in North Africa and the first case in South America.

Mind you, I'm sure the BBC will find some way to make it the fault of the government.

For those who are interested.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

[Workingman]

China and now Japan have reported cases of reinfection of those who were thought to have recovered. The big worry there is that they were supposed to be 'clean' and yet although they were showing no signs of being infected the virus was still in their bodies and (possibly) able to be passed on.

It is either that or they came into contact with a different carrier and caught the infection again i.e. they were not immune.

[Suff]

Or it is mutating to the point that it can re-infect people who have recovered.

The wheels are coming off the wagon. New cases continue to fall in China but grow dramatically in South Korea. Who are now over 2,000 with over 700+ in one day. But the EU is starting to take hits now. +21 Germany, +20 France, +185 in Italy to take it to 655 cases. Italy will overtake the Diamond Princess to be the third worst country in one day and Iran is likely to follow closely on it's heels.

Another African country, Nigeria, has a case. Although Egypt didn't get any more cases and the one case has recovered.

Mrs S is starting to get concerned about travelling to Fife for our annual ball a week on Saturday. I will be monitoring things closely.

[Workingman]

Mutation was always on the cards once the virus came into contact with the wider human gene pool. There is along history of it happening when a virus gets in the wild.

The first Briton had died in hospital in Japan, a man from the Diamond Princess..

Cases outside of China are now going up at an alarming rate and the WHO is concerned that there are now cases on all habitable continents - only Antarctica is free. Under one measure out of many that defines it as a pandemic.

I now see that former Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, is saying that the NHS will struggle to cope if it becomes epidemic in the UK. At least he is telling the truth unlike the current Minister. He is also saying that we should be prepared for schools (and other places) to close for maybe two months. This flies in the face of what PHE are saying, which is that schools etc. should remain open. They cannot both be right, so we are living an experiment.

[Suff]

It looks like South Korea is heading for the same place China was in before locking Wuhan province down.

Iran is continuing to grow fast and will infect the rest of the ME if they don't get it under control.

Italy is also in dangerous territory.

I'd say they have lost control. If they have, then it will be several months (or morel, before they get it back.

This is really going to impact business and jobs. I wonder when the balance between body count and GDP will swing over to reducing body count? Right now they are more worried about GDP.

[Workingman]

And now the US has confirmed three new cases, one each in the west coast states. None of them are connected to any badly hit place or country.

These unconnected case are now being reported in many places outside of China and authorities are getting very concerned at this development.

The UK has announced three new cases, all in England in Gloucestershire, Hertfordshire and Berkshire. Two came back from Italy and one from Asia - contact tracing has begun. We now have had 23 cases.

[Suff]

France added 43 cases today to take them up to 100.

They have banned gatherings larger than 5,000.