# 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:** 8
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2020, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/141 "2020-02-27T05:01:05Z")
So the good news is the mortality rate is only 2%. The bad news is you could catch it 50 times. ---
**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:** [February 27, 2020, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/142 "2020-02-27T05:20:37Z")
82,164 confirmed infections 2,801 dead 32,872 recovered There are currently at least 60 confirmed infections in the US; today’s new US patients also brought [this news](https://apnews.com/57177e2e35d7d0d518361166935c614e): > [@](#): > > A new coronavirus case in California could be the first in the U.S. that has no known connection to travel abroad or another known case, a possible sign the virus is spreading in a U.S. community, health officials said. > > The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported the case Wednesday. > > California officials said the person is a resident of Solano County, northeast of San Francisco, and is getting medical care in Sacramento County. They said they have begun the process of tracking down people who the patient has been in contact with, a process known as contact tracing. > > The patient was brought to UC Davis Medical Center from another Northern California hospital on Feb. 19 but it was four days before the CDC heeded a request to test the patient for COVID-19, according to an email sent to employees Wednesday by the hospital’s interim CEO, Brad Simmons, and David Lubarsky, CEO of UC Davis Health. [Trump put Pence in charge of the US effort against the virus](South Korea reported 334 more cases, bringing its total to 1,595. Most of the new cases were in the country’s fourth-biggest city, Daegu, where the outbreak has hit hardest and the national government has mobilized public health tools to assist the region’s overwhelmed medical system. But there are signs the virus is spreading further in South Korea with 55 cases reported so far in the capital, Seoul, and 58 in the second-largest city, Busan. The country also confirmed its 13th death Thursday, with most still in and near Daegu. China reported 433 new cases along with 29 additional deaths. Thursday’s updates bring mainland China’s totals to 78,497 cases, and 2,744 deaths. Of the new cases, 383 were in the epicenter of the city of Wuhan, where the virus first emerged in December. Wuhan also accounted for 19 of the new deaths.[url=[Trump urges calm even as US reports worrisome new virus case | AP News](https://apnews.com/37f7a2ce5392c7d3b433df41fcdab66b)). [China and South Korea continue to report new confirmed infections in the hundreds per day and are seeing it spread still](https://apnews.com/1631a414cfba8ae39dee4b82748b129b). > [@](#): > > South Korea reported 334 more cases, bringing its total to 1,595. Most of the new cases were in the country’s fourth-biggest city, Daegu, where the outbreak has hit hardest and the national government has mobilized public health tools to assist the region’s overwhelmed medical system. > > But there are signs the virus is spreading further in South Korea with 55 cases reported so far in the capital, Seoul, and 58 in the second-largest city, Busan. The country also confirmed its 13th death Thursday, with most still in and near Daegu. > > China reported 433 new cases along with 29 additional deaths. Thursday’s updates bring mainland China’s totals to 78,497 cases, and 2,744 deaths. > > Of the new cases, 383 were in the epicenter of the city of Wuhan, where the virus first emerged in December. Wuhan also accounted for 19 of the new deaths. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2020, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/143 "2020-02-27T05:48:28Z")
A judge in California had issued an injunction against quarantine. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2020, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/144 "2020-02-27T05:54:22Z")
FWIW, Wuhan’s new target date for starting the quarantine process to reopen factories is 10 March. In other words, on 10 March, a small select group will be able to go into quarantine outside the factory, in order to start working on 24 March. The 10 March date is the current plan of record, and subject to change… ---
**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:** [February 27, 2020, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/145 "2020-02-27T06:06:38Z")
COVID-19 is starting to affect religious worship. [Ash Wednesday sprinkles not smudges in the Philippines](https://apnews.com/19233731504e19355613706cd4e4d380). > [@](#): > > In the Philippines — Asia’s only majority Roman Catholic country — priests sprinkled ashes on the heads of the faithful rather than making the mark of the cross on their foreheads to avoid physical contact. > > “Wherever the ash is placed, on the forehead or on the head, the feeling is the same, it’s uplifting,” Editha Lorenzo, a 49-year-old mother of two wearing a face mask, told The Associated Press in Manila. > [@](#): > > the patriarchate of Venice canceled the Mass scheduled for St. Mark’s Basilica, after a handful of elderly people in the lagoon city tested positive for the virus. [Saudi Arabia halts travel to Islam’s holiest site over virus](https://apnews.com/99cd4d90efcfe62e0518dde701a0608d). > [@](#): > > Saudi Arabia on Thursday halted travel to the holiest sites in Islam over fears about a new viral epidemic just months ahead of the annual hajj pilgrimage, a move coming as the Mideast has over 220 confirmed cases of the illness. > > The extraordinary decision by Saudi Arabia stops foreigners from reaching the holy city of Mecca and the Kaaba, the cube-shaped structure the world’s 1.8 billion Muslims pray toward five times a day. It also said travel was suspended to Prophet Muhammad’s mosque in Medina. ---
**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:** [February 27, 2020, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/146 "2020-02-27T11:17:08Z")
I got to work this morning and read in the news that [the first known case in my city (Vienna) has just been confirmed](https://www.derstandard.at/jetzt/livebericht/2000115088241/coronaviruserster-bestaetigter-fall-in-wien). The patient is being isolated in a hospital a few kilometres from my office. On top of this I’m scheduled to attend two conferences in northern Italy, one in March and one in June. I’m the keynote speaker at one of them, and a co-organizer of a track at the second, so I can’t really pull out unless it’s absolutely necessary. Fortunately, neither event is taking place in one of the affected areas, though who knows whether the disease will spread to them soon (or whether Vienna itself will go into lockdown). I guess I’ll just have to monitor the situation and the Italian and Austrian governments’ travel advisories. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2020, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/147 "2020-02-27T11:22:40Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > So the good news is the mortality rate is only 2%. The bad news is you could catch it 50 times. Getting re-infected with a modified strain of can make you very sick indeed. You get an immune reaction, but it doesn’t kill the virus, so you get a massive self-destructive non-limiting immune reaction to go along with the viral effects. I’ve been wondering if that was already happening (given the 50% mortality rate for those patients who have already progressed to critical care), but it appears that (so far) I was wrong. It’s just a very destructive virus. ---
**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:** [February 27, 2020, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/148 "2020-02-27T11:32:52Z")
Update: I’ve just learned that the conference I was due to speak at in March has been postponed indefinitely. The website explains that many attendees and keynote speakers have already had to cancel due to their companies’ policies about travel to northern Italy, and that the organizers have decided to delay the entire conference out of concern for the health of attendees. They’re aiming to reschedule for June or July, though they might not make any firm decision about this until May. Meanwhile, the organizers of the other conference I am due to attend in June are downplaying the risk. They’ve extended the registration and submission deadlines, and have posted the following banner on their social media feed (all formatting and typos reproduced as-is): > [@](#): > > **I T A L I A N** > C O R O N A V I R U S > > **No more risks** than > other EU countires! > > **Just more prevention** > than other EU countries! > > Much more > **ITALIAN DRAMA STYLE!** > > **INFORMATION IS THE KEY** > > Come and **visit us** , > our country is safe! ---
**Author:** ![Shmendrik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Shmendrik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shmendrik)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2020, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/149 "2020-02-27T11:38:38Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > A judge in California had issued an injunction against quarantine. Several people have said that here, but as far as I can tell the only injunction has been against transferring patients or quarantined people from a federal facility to a specific state owed facility in California, because the city is too frightened to have them there. ---
**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:** [February 27, 2020, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/150 "2020-02-27T14:00:30Z")
The new US case is very concerning as the patient’s exposure to the virus is unknown and this strongly suggests this was down to community spread. It also took the hospital a number of days to diagnose the patient and it appears that was only at the repeated insistence of the doctors. Testing on any sort of scale has been almost non-existent in the US so once it picks up we should not be surprised if it’s discovered that the US is already in the middle of an outbreak. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2020, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/151 "2020-02-27T14:43:23Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > Getting re-infected with a modified strain of can make you very sick indeed. You get an immune reaction, but it doesn’t kill the virus, so you get a massive self-destructive non-limiting immune reaction to go along with the viral effects. > … This makes no sense to me and is nothing I’ve ever heard about. Maybe you are confused about cytokine storm? A different thing. In general re-infection due to waning immunity or variant strain leads to milder infections than the primary infections. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2020, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/152 "2020-02-27T18:17:00Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > In general re-infection due to waning immunity or variant strain leads to milder infections than the primary infections. As I understand it … in a very small percentage people, their immune systems don’t quite “remember” the viral infection it just fought off. And so, some tiny number of people can get any given viral infection two or more times – same strain of flu, mononucleosis, etc. It doesn’t necessarily follow that failure to pick up lifetime immunity after exposure to, say, H1N1 means that you’ll fail to get immunity after mono, COVID-19, etc. In short – human immune systems, as a collective, are very effective. On the individual level … they can be imperfect to varying degrees. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2020, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/153 "2020-02-27T20:11:02Z")
North Korea has reportedly executed an official who broke quarantine. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2020, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/154 "2020-02-27T23:24:03Z")
How disruptive will this be? ---
**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:** [February 27, 2020, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/155 "2020-02-27T23:38:18Z")
Interesting to compare the numbers tested and the numbers of cases found by some of the leading countries… UK: 7,132 concluded tests, of which 13 positive (0.2% positivity rate). [Source](https://twitter.com/DHSCgovuk/status/1232671311312363521) Italy: 9,462 tests, of which 470 positive (5.0% positivity rate), awaiting results: unknown. [Source](https://www.repubblica.it/cronaca/2020/02/22/news/coronavirus_in_italia_aggiornamento_ora_per_ora-249241616/) France: 762 tests, of which 17 positive (2.2% positivity rate), 179 awaiting results. [Source](https://www.santepubliquefrance.fr/maladies-et-traumatismes/maladies-et-infections-respiratoires/infection-a-coronavirus/articles/covid-19-situation-epidemiologique-en-france) Austria: 321 tests, of which 2 positive (0.6% positivity rate), awaiting results: unknown. [Source](https://www.sozialministerium.at/Informationen-zum-Coronavirus/Neuartiges-Coronavirus-(2019-nCov).html) United States: 445 concluded tests, of which 14 positive (3.1% positivity rate). [Source](https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-in-us.html) Of course some countries are testing more randomly than others so the positivity rate should not be used as a measure of infected people. ---
**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:** [February 28, 2020, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/156 "2020-02-28T03:24:13Z")
Japan is closing its schools, elementary through high school, until the end of March. Their school year starts on April 1st. I ha e friends who are scrambling to figure out what to do with their young kids. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2020, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/157 "2020-02-28T05:27:54Z")
My employer has said, “no big deal, our employees can work from home”. But my boss has little kids. If the schools are closed, there’s no way he’s working effectively at home. ---
**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:** [February 28, 2020, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/158 "2020-02-28T05:33:26Z")
83,387 confirmed infections 2,858 dead 36,557 recovered ---
**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:** [February 28, 2020, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/159 "2020-02-28T06:33:48Z")
It looks like the schools open April 8, spots a long time. My friends are scrambling to find daughter care and there aren’t any good options ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2020, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/160 "2020-02-28T11:24:12Z")
> [@bordelond](#): > > As I understand it … in a very small percentage people, their immune systems don’t quite “remember” the viral infection it just fought off. And so, some tiny number of people can get any given viral infection two or more times – same strain of flu, mononucleosis, etc. It doesn’t necessarily follow that failure to pick up lifetime immunity after exposure to, say, H1N1 means that you’ll fail to get immunity after mono, COVID-19, etc. > > In short – human immune systems, as a collective, are very effective. On the individual level … they can be imperfect to varying degrees. It’s a characteristic of Dengue, which is a highly variable virus with 4 common serotypes, each of multiple genotypes. My ignorance of this area is why I’ve been asking questions related to that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758.md?page=9)