# Coronavirus COVID-19 (2019-nCoV) Thread - 2020 Breaking News **URL:** \ **Category:** The Quarantine Zone\ **Tags:** covid-quarantine\ **Created:** [February 11, 2020, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758 "2020-02-11T01:16:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 148
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2020, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/2948 "2020-05-04T03:00:38Z")
…update from New Zealand: [no new cases today](https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/121394819/coronavirus-no-new-covid19-cases-deaths-in-nz). Four patients still in hospital, none in ICU. In total 20 people have died: more than half of those deaths came from the same cluster, the Rosewood Rest Home and Hospital. Lets hope it lasts. The country hopefully will drop to Level 2 next week, social distancing will continue, the borders will remain closed, but we will start to get back to some semblance of normality. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2020, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/2949 "2020-05-04T03:27:27Z")
Meanwhile, in Ontario: Tomorrow is the day: a limited number of business in Ontario will reopen. They are mostly [outdoor ones](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-covid-businesses-reopen-1.5552429) like garden supply centres and landscaping services, plus some construction. The government continues to say that we must see a “consistent two-to-four week decrease in the number of new daily COVID-19 cases” before more things can open up. But outbreaks [continue to increase](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-covid19-may1-1.5552111) in long-term care facilities. Public transit is [going to be different](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/covid-public-transit-1.5552482)when people start to return to work. Reduced service levels (ridership on the regional Toronto train and bus system dropped by 90 percent!); all-door boarding on some buses. The buses here in Belleville have gone to on-demand only (you book a ride from bus stop A to bus stop B via an app) and you board by the rear doors, not paying a fare. Or so I’ve heard. I haven’t been on a bus in months. There have been a couple of [anti-lockdown protests](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/upside-down-canadian-flag-anti-lockdown-protest-toronto-ontario-premier-1.5553743) in front of the Ontario parliament buildings in Queen’s Park; Premier Ford derided them as ‘yahoos’. In other news, my work announced that they will be hiring a whole bunch of people back under the 75% wage subsidy program. We would be paid by them and be taken off the unemployment rolls. This will last until early June; I suspect that they thing there will be some production up and running by then. I am waiting to find out more. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2020, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/2950 "2020-05-04T04:12:32Z")
3,566,295 total cases 248,286 dead 1,154,061 recovered In the US: 1,188,122 total cases 68,598 dead 178,263 recovered Yesterday’s numbers for comparison: > [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > 3,484,176 total cases > 244,778 dead > 1,121,539 recovered > > In the US: > > 1,160,774 total cases > 67,444 dead > 173,725 recovered ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2020, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/2951 "2020-05-04T05:21:44Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Holy crap. Panama had been holding fairly steady at between 150 and 240 new cases per day and looked like it had reached a plateau at least. But today there were 370 new cases, more than 100 more than the previous peak.:smack: > > We’ve been on pretty tight lockdown for over a month, with people allowed to leave their houses only for essential shopping for only two hours a day every other day, and a complete lockdown for everyone on Saturdays and Sundays. I don’t know how these new cases are being transmitted. So tonight people throughout Panama City, from the slums to the expensive high-rises, demonstrated by beating pots and pans out their windows like they did to protest against the dictatorship during the Noriega years. A big part of it was a protest against corruption, since last Monday a vice minister was forced to resign after he was going to buy 100 ventilators for almost $50,000 each when the normal price is $6,900. Now they are demanding the resignation of the Vice President as well. People were also frustrated by the big jump in new cases yesterday, although today the total was back down to 107. Let’s see what tomorrow brings. [Here’s a link](https://www.prensa.com/politica/ciudadanos-suenan-pailas-contra-el-vicepresidente-jose-gabriel-carrizo-y-exigen-transparencia/)to the story in Spanish with videos of the protests. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2020, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/2952 "2020-05-04T05:39:05Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Holy crap. Panama had been holding fairly steady at between 150 and 240 new cases per day and looked like it had reached a plateau at least. But today there were 370 new cases, more than 100 more than the previous peak.:smack: Ok, now they’re clarifying that the apparent big jump in numbers was due to a delay in reporting some of the cases over the past four days. The actual average per day has been about 175 cases per day. [Link in Spanish](https://www.midiario.com/nacionales/calma-pueblo-saez-llorens-revela-la-realidad-de-los-370-nuevos-casos-de-coronavirus-en-panama/?utm_source=newsletter&fbclid=IwAR34U1DWYwQDydebe7XISZVMtinc3i2n_et4jHeOagVQVUHCoxUTXXlqkCY) The good news from Panama is that the cases have not saturated the capacity of hospitals for regular rooms or intensive care. Apparently we’re only at about 60% of capacity. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2020, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/2953 "2020-05-04T05:47:02Z")
Every year there is an extended children’s festival in Taiwan with dancers from around the world, and swimming pools and water attractions. It has been cancelled for this year. Yesterday, there were three new cases, breaking a streak of four or five days. One of the cases was a Taiwanese lady who left Taiwan at the end of February for an extended trip, first to Australia for a month then Japan. She developed symptoms in Japan, but keep on her vacation until last week when she returned. There has been a huge outcry saying stupid people should have their national health insurance revoked and make her pay for treatment out of her own pocket. People are pissed at the arrogance of it. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2020, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/2954 "2020-05-04T18:53:26Z")
\*Of course, \*covid scams: > **[Work-From-Home Scams Could Rise as COVID-19 Spreads](https://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/info-2020/fraud-trends-coronavirus.html?intcmp=AE-FRDSC-MOR-R2-POS3)** > > A FBI official warns that advanced-fee schemes, phishing scams, fake charities and work-from-home scams are growing as coronavirus spreads. \*Today there’s a laser focus on the U.S.-based and foreign crooks who are chasing a payday from the pandemic. They’re government impostors. They’re money launderers. They’re con artists collecting cash for bogus charities. They’re hucksters touting fake and even dangerous “cures” for a disease for which there is no approved remedy. "COVID was a curveball this year that nobody anticipated, but it is one of our top priorities right now,” Brown says. … More than 3,600 complaints about COVID-19 scams were made to the bureau’s Internet Crime Complaint Center as of April 21, the department said. According to Brown, experience with economic hardship during the Great Recession and with past disasters including the BP oil spill and Hurricane Katrina has helped law enforcement forecast what misdeeds might surface during the ongoing global health crisis. Scams that are trending include: Phishing schemes…Work-at-home schemes…Fraudulent charities and fake entities…Advance-fee schemes\* ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2020, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/2955 "2020-05-04T19:23:13Z")
I just wanted to thank everyone — Colibri, Urbanredneck, everyone — for their updates from their respective locales. (I have nothing particularly interesting to report from my small western Wisconsin city — holding pretty steady at around 30 cases in the county; most folks continuing to be really cautious, but more people seen interacting without face masks in recent days, maybe as the days get springlike. No indoor gatherings, but outdoors, teens and some young adults are hanging out more in small groups. The state as a whole has seen its infected numbers continue to rise slowly — new cases are concentrated in southern (Janesville, Beloit) and east-central (Green Bay) parts of the state.) ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2020, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/2956 "2020-05-04T19:50:12Z")
A stat from the UK which slightly blew my mind. The Job Retention Scheme came into force on 20th April. This allows employers to furlough employees, with the government picking up 80% of their wages (with a limit of £2500 p/m). As of 3rd May, almost of a quarter of the entire UK workforce is now on the scheme. That’s quite the intervention by the Treasury. > ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2020, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/2957 "2020-05-04T20:38:00Z")
A restaurant in Maine reopened despite the governor’s shutdown orders. By the end of the day, it had had its health license revoked. > **[A Maine restaurant owner opened up despite the governor’s COVID-19 orders. He...](https://www.boston.com/news/coronavirus/2020/05/02/sunday-river-brewing-maine-coronavirus-orders/)** > > Maine restaurant owner Rick Savage followed through on his vows to reopen for business on Friday, defying a state order that all eateries remain closed until June because of the \[…\] ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2020, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/2958 "2020-05-04T20:57:03Z")
"As President Trump presses for states to reopen their economies, his administration is privately projecting a steady rise in the number of coronavirus cases and deaths over the next several weeks. The daily death toll will reach about 3,000 on June 1, according to an internal document obtained by The New York Times, nearly double the current number of about 1,750. The projections, based on government modeling pulled together in chart form by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, forecast about 200,000 new cases each day by the end of the month, up from about 25,000 cases a day currently." > **[Models Project Sharp Rise in Deaths as States Reopen (Published 2020)](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/04/us/coronavirus-live-updates.html)** > > An internal Trump administration report expects about 200,000 daily cases by June. The White House bars coronavirus task force officials from testifying to Congress without approval. A million new cases every five days? ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2020, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/2959 "2020-05-04T21:24:20Z")
> [@Baron\_Greenback](#): > > A stat from the UK which slightly blew my mind. The Job Retention Scheme came into force on 20th April. This allows employers to furlough employees, with the government picking up 80% of their wages (with a limit of £2500 p/m). > > As of 3rd May, almost of a quarter of the entire UK workforce is now on the scheme. That’s quite the intervention by the Treasury. It’s the same proportion in Austria: the size of the workforce is 4.6 million, and 1.2 million positions (about 26% of the total) are furloughed. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2020, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/2960 "2020-05-04T21:27:40Z")
Today in Austria: [ul] [li] The results of a **second statistical study on the virus’s prevalence** are in. A random sample of 1432 people across the country were given a coronavirus test, and only one person tested positive. Extrapolating these results to the entire population, this means that there are probably only 3400 active cases in the country, about 0.05% of the population. (This is about double the number of confirmed active cases.) By contrast, the previous study at the beginning of April suggested the number of infected was between 10,200 and 67,400.[/li] The study also randomly sampled 540 individuals in high-risk areas for **antibody testing**. Of these, 4.71% had coronavirus antibodies. A **further study in May** will involve 3500 subjects. [li] The government is once more making noises about making the use of **coronavirus tracking apps** mandatory, at least for incoming travellers. The chancellor’s advisor, Antonella Mei-Pochtler, is even going so far as to say that the general public is clamouring for such a measure.[/li][li] The country’s far-right Freedom Party (which was kicked out of the previous coalition government over a bribery scandal) is trying to whip up **public opposition to the lockdown measures** , even now that they have been largely relaxed. They’ve gotten 40,000 people to sign a petition calling for a “return to normality”. My own view is that they’re doing this largely opportunistically, hoping to attract citizens who are tired of the lockdown measures despite not being strong supporters of far-right politics. The left-wing Social-Democratic Party has also been criticizing the government’s pandemic control measures a lot in recent weeks, though this has largely been done in parliament rather than making cynical appeals directly to the electorate.[/li][li] As of today, 80 further countries are once again accepting **post to and from Austria**. These include Canada, the USA, Spain, Italy, Turkey, and the Baltic states.[/li][li] The Czech government has announced that **controls at the Austrian–Czech border** will remain in place until at least 13 June.[/li][li] So far the **unemployment office** has processed 91,460 applications from businesses to furlough 1.25 million employees. The office is being asked to pay €8.8 billion to cover their salaries. So far €40 million has been paid out.[/li][li] Current statistics: 15,551 confirmed infections, 600 deaths, 13,316 recovered.[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2020, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/2961 "2020-05-05T00:23:15Z")
If only one person tested positive, the error bars on that 3400 have to be pretty huge relative to the number. You can see that was even the case before with the rather large distance between the previous two numbers; I have to imagine it’s even greater here. I wouldn’t be surprised if the error bar went down much lower than the number of active cases, but went up to something like 20-30 times that number. ---
**Author:** ![galen\_ubal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/galen_ubal/32/4440_2.png) [@galen\_ubal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/galen_ubal)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2020, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/2962 "2020-05-05T01:26:40Z")
> [@Baron\_Greenback](#): > > A stat from the UK which slightly blew my mind. The Job Retention Scheme came into force on 20th April. This allows employers to furlough employees, with the government picking up 80% of their wages (with a limit of £2500 p/m). > > As of 3rd May, almost of a quarter of the entire UK workforce is now on the scheme. That’s quite the intervention by the Treasury. > > [https://twitter.com/HMRCgovuk/status/1257324798847451136](https://twitter.com/HMRCgovuk/status/1257324798847451136) > [@psychonaut](#): > > It’s the same proportion in Austria: the size of the workforce is 4.6 million, and 1.2 million positions (about 26% of the total) are furloughed. There’s a similar program in Australia, called [JobKeeper.](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-20/australia-coronavirus-jobkeer-payments-open/12164242) I’m not finding any hard numbers on how many are in it at the moment. In this scheme, businesses are subsidized to pay their employees $1500/fortnight, whether or not the business is actually open and operating, so long as there has been a significant downturn in the business’s income. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2020, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/2963 "2020-05-05T04:08:18Z")
3,646,201 total cases 252,407 dead 1,200,170 recovered In the US: 1,212,900 total cases 69,921 dead 188,068 recovered Yesterday’s numbers for comparison: > [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > 3,566,295 total cases > 248,286 dead > 1,154,061 recovered > > In the US: > > 1,188,122 total cases > 68,598 dead > 178,263 recovered ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2020, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/2964 "2020-05-05T04:46:42Z")
I feel Hawaii will soon start to think about reopening to some extent soon. New cases per day have been in the low single digits for more than a week now. Today just one new case was reported, and that was on the Big Island. I’m definitely seeing more people out and about too. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2020, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/2965 "2020-05-05T05:03:30Z")
Just turned 7pm here in Hawaii, and there goes the nightly racket. I don’t like it. No one did it until a week and a half ago or so, and maybe I would like it if they had started it sooner, but it’s clear some of these yahoos believe it’s an anti-lockdown protest. In reality, it’s supposed to be to show support for healthcare workers, but that is totally lost on some of the rubes here. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2020, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/2966 "2020-05-05T05:22:46Z")
\>\>Just turned 7pm here in Hawaii, and there goes the nightly racket Not sure what you’re referring to. [A nightly serenade, Italy style](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhTjGS3QkYE)? ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2020, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/2967 "2020-05-05T05:25:00Z")
> [@squeegee](#): > > \>\>Just turned 7pm here in Hawaii, and there goes the nightly racket > > Not sure what you’re referring to. [A nightly serenade, Italy style](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhTjGS3QkYE)? Lots of people yelling and banging pots. I’ve read it’s been standard in quite a few cities in Europe and the US. Started late here. 7pm, every night. EDIT: [Here’s an example.](https://www.npr.org/2020/04/10/832131816/every-night-new-york-city-salutes-its-health-care-workers) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758.md?page=147) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758.md?page=149)