# 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:** 54
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/1062 "2020-03-17T18:07:29Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Seven counties are included – Six in the Bay Area plus Santa Cruz County. > > The order explicitly allows outdoor recreational activities, as long as nobody congregates in groups (a “group” apparently being just 2 or more), and everybody stays 6 feet away from everybody else. The order seems to implicitly allow travel to and from such recreational activities. > > ETA: [Link to the full text of the order](https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/03/16/read-shelter-in-place-order-from-six-bay-area-counties/). I stand corrected, thanks. ---
**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:** [March 17, 2020, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/1063 "2020-03-17T18:19:50Z")
A guy in Kentucky tested positive but refused to stay in the hospital, so now there are police watching his house to make sure he doesn’t go anywhere. [https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/03/17/us/kentucky-refused-quarantine-coronavirus-trnd/index.htm](https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/03/17/us/kentucky-refused-quarantine-coronavirus-trnd/index.htm) ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/1064 "2020-03-17T18:47:51Z")
> [@Ike\_Witt](#): > > So, I am sitting here at home and decide to turn on the TV see if there are any new developments. > > On CNN there is a live press conference from the White House about the virus and testing. There are by my count at least 5 maybe 6 people, including Trump and Pence, all standing in a small crowded area. > > I switch channels to the CTV 24 hour news channel (Canadian). There is also a press conference with various Canadian officials. They are all seated at a long table with at least one arms length between the people. > > The differences were startling. Canadians were showing practical social distancing and the Americans sure seem to be acting like nothing was different. Of course, my experience with “social distancing” has been the 5 days since I first heard of such a thing, but Trump and Pence hang around each other so much that it would seem a bit silly for them to distance themselves from each other. I mean, should I stay six feet away from my wife and daughter at all times? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/1065 "2020-03-17T19:01:02Z")
I’ll believe the government will give people $1,000 when A) the check arrives in my mailbox; and B) the check clears the bank. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/1066 "2020-03-17T19:08:32Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > Of course, my experience with “social distancing” has been the 5 days since I first heard of such a thing, but Trump and Pence hang around each other so much that it would seem a bit silly for them to distance themselves from each other. > > I mean, should I stay six feet away from my wife and daughter at all times? It’s not so much that they need to protect each other as they need to model the behaviour for the nation. Leadership. (But then, why start now?) ---
**Author:** ![psychobunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@psychobunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychobunny)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/1067 "2020-03-17T20:28:14Z")
[Here](https://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/famous-people-normal-people-tests) is an example of everything wrong with America. If you are rich and famous you get the best of care but if not, you are screwed. More important, though, people who may come in contact with you are also screwed. ---
**Author:** ![JcWoman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jcwoman/32/2889_2.png) [@JcWoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JcWoman)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/1068 "2020-03-17T20:52:08Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > Of course, my experience with “social distancing” has been the 5 days since I first heard of such a thing, but Trump and Pence hang around each other so much that it would seem a bit silly for them to distance themselves from each other. > > I mean, should I stay six feet away from my wife and daughter at all times? Assuming you’re all healthy, it only matters that all three of you keep a distance from other people. ---
**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:** [March 17, 2020, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/1069 "2020-03-17T20:54:24Z")
…well our government has sent out the “[recall](https://safetravel.govt.nz/covid-19-coronavirus#overlay-context=covid-19-coronavirus)” order. Time to come home everyone. The New Zealand government ran a surplus at the last budget and attracted a bit of criticism for not upping its social spending. A few months later it seems extraordinarily prudent to have kept a firm hand on the purse strings. Yesterday they announced a [12.1 billion dollar package](https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/120335359/coronavirus-governments-giant-121b-scheme-will-pay-for-people-to-stay-in-work-at-home) to help people stay at home. It includes tax relief and assistance for big and small business, a (permanent) increase in money for beneficiaries, and incentives for people to stay home. ---
**Author:** ![Bootis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e8c25b/32.png) [@Bootis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bootis)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/1070 "2020-03-17T21:01:07Z")
Are there any resources online that show age demographics for cases/deaths? I’ve only been able to find the one world meters chart, but that’s only showing date through February, for China only. Surely this is relevant info, publicly available somewhere? ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/1071 "2020-03-17T21:01:57Z")
> [@psychobunny](#): > > [Here](https://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/famous-people-normal-people-tests) is an example of everything wrong with America. If you are rich and famous you get the best of care but if not, you are screwed. More important, though, people who may come in contact with you are also screwed. Point of order: some of those famous people do not live in America so presumably have better healthcare anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/1072 "2020-03-17T21:59:31Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > 182,609 confirmed infections > … > > By my estimation, total confirmed infections will pass 200,000 no later than Wednesday. Looks like we will break the 200,000 mark before the end of today. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/1073 "2020-03-17T22:03:05Z")
West Virginia now has first positive confirmed. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/1074 "2020-03-17T22:06:37Z")
West Virginia also closing restaurants, bars, and casinos. ---
**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:** [March 17, 2020, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/1075 "2020-03-17T22:08:56Z")
Today’s Austria update: [ul] [li] As I previously reported, all ski resorts in the west have closed, with all tourists being required to leave by yesterday. Incredibly, many local bars and clubs there held “coronavirus parties” on Sunday night—the last night they could legally be open—with heavily discounted food and drinks. These parties were packed with customers vying to be next in line for a Darwin award. (Tyrol, where most of the ski resorts are located, is the country’s #1 hotspot for coronavirus.) One of the bartenders at these establishments has tested positive for the virus. Time-lapsed CCTV footage showed her interacting with dozens of customers, and coming into close contact with scores more. The vice chancellor has now urgently requested anyone who has visited Tyrol to self-isolate.[/li] [li] Despite the government’s actions to prop up businesses, yesterday 16,000 more people registered with the government as unemployed. Nonetheless, certain narrow sectors are starved for (temporary) workers—the country’s largest supermarket conglomerate, for example, is scrambling to hire 4000 additional workers.[/li] [li] People are generally complying with the mandatory home quarantine. No fines were issued yesterday, though police did have to break up a few fights over toilet paper at some supermarkets, and came close to ticketing merchants at a flea market who initially refused to dismantle their stands. A few fines were issued today for people who were caught outside without a good reason, though this generally requires phenomenal levels of obstinance and stupidity on the part of the transgressors. For example, police questioned one gentleman at a train station about his destination, and he answered that he was going to pay a social call to a friend. The police informed him that this sort of travel was not permitted, but even after this warning he refused to return home and so was slapped with a €2180 fine.[/li] [li] Hungary has now closed its borders with Austria to all travellers except returning citizens. I may have lost track, but I believe this means that all of Austria’s external borders are now closed for most purposes. In addition, the EU is closing its external borders to incoming non-citizens. (Not sure if the Austia–Switzerland border counts as external for this purpose, but it’s already closed at any rate.)[/li] [li] Secondary school final exams are being postponed by at least two weeks.[/li] [li] The national rail operator, ÖBB, reports that ridership is down by 70%.[/li] [li] A drive-in coronavirus testing station has been opened in Salzburg. I’m not sure if you need an advance appointment.[/li] [li] Current statistics: 1332 infections, including 3 dead and 9 recovered.[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/1076 "2020-03-17T22:20:29Z")
Another way of tracking the outbreak is the number of cases per million of population: Italy 521.1 Switzerland 316.8 Norway 271.2 Spain 252.9 Iran 192.5 Estonia 169.6 Denmark 168.7 S. Korea 162.3 Qatar 153.4 Austria 147.9 Bahrain 141.6 ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/1077 "2020-03-17T23:52:46Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > Of course, my experience with “social distancing” has been the 5 days since I first heard of such a thing, but Trump and Pence hang around each other so much that it would seem a bit silly for them to distance themselves from each other. > > I mean, should I stay six feet away from my wife and daughter at all times? Even the Secretary of Defense and the Deputy Secretary of Defense are not going into the same room. [https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/03/16/politics/pentagon-bubble-leadership-coronavirus/index.html](https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/03/16/politics/pentagon-bubble-leadership-coronavirus/index.html) ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2020, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/1078 "2020-03-18T01:02:56Z")
[Potential False-Positive Rate Among the ‘Asymptomatic Infected Individuals’ in Close Contacts of COVID-19 Patients](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32133832/?fbclid=IwAR3LHLplRtmPZED3jt_Hjf2ZKysmDcXMU5LgVgNPcqNAtb9EzcQBKMtCIoI) Disclaimer: This is just one study, so please don’t put a lot of weight on it. Good news: If their conclusion is true, then it means the virus isn’t nearly as contagious as originally thought. Bad news: If their conclusion is true, then the fatality rate is much higher than what is currently being report. ---
**Author:** ![psychobunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@psychobunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychobunny)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2020, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/1079 "2020-03-18T01:22:07Z")
The problem with that study is that they don’t say how they determine a test is a “false positive”. They don’t have a gold standard of definite infection with or without symptoms to compare their tests to. Their results can be interpreted as “if a patient tests positive but does not have symptoms than that may be a “false positive” as opposed to an “asymptomatic infection” and if you call all of them false positives then there are a lot of false positives”. I may be missing something, but that is at least all that I can glean from the abstract. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2020, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/1080 "2020-03-18T02:16:17Z")
> [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](#): > > Another way of tracking the outbreak is the number of cases per million of population: > > Italy 521.1 > Switzerland 316.8 > > \ Iceland 618 (225 cases in a population of 364,000) They’re one to watch, because if any countries start getting to the stage where the pandemic is slowing down because it runs out of uninfected victims, they’ll be high on the list. No sign of it so far ---
**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:** [March 18, 2020, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/1081 "2020-03-18T04:05:36Z")
198,426 confirmed infections 7,987 dead 82,763 recovered In the US: 6,509 confirmed infections 115 dead 106 recovered Assuming the US confirmed infections increase is due to increased testing, it seems plausible that the US will overtake France and South Korea for 6th place in total number of confirmed infections. It seems likely that the US will hit 10,000 confirmed infections no later than Thursday. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758.md?page=53) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758.md?page=55)