# 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:** 94
**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:** [April 2, 2020, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/1863 "2020-04-02T20:42:22Z")
FDNY and Long Island EMS have been ordered not to transport patients who can not be resuscitated to hospitals > **[EMS Workers in New York City, Long Island, Receive Orders Not to...](https://www.truthorfiction.com/ems-workers-in-new-york-city-long-island-receive-orders-not-to-transport-patients-who-cannot-be-resuscitated-in-the-field/)** > > A viral story emphasized the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic as Emergency Medical Services teams in New York City and on Long Island received orders not to transport patients in cardiac arrest. ---
**Author:** ![psychobunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@psychobunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychobunny)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2020, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/1864 "2020-04-02T20:55:12Z")
What is happening in France? They have had over 1300 new deaths today. That is nearly twice as much as any other country. Have their hospitals reached the saturation point? ---
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2020, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/1865 "2020-04-02T21:04:29Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > _It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen._ > > An opening line that seems apropos now in multiple ways. It’s true, and I wasn’t expecting it so soon. Say goodbye to freedom ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2020, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/1866 "2020-04-02T21:06:43Z")
> [@psychobunny](#): > > What is happening in France? They have had over 1300 new deaths today. That is nearly twice as much as any other country. Have their hospitals reached the saturation point? They seem to have a fairly low per-capita infection rate, so it’s unlikely that they’re at capacity. I’d venture to guess that it’s delayed reporting of numbers, minus information to the contrary. ---
**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:** [April 2, 2020, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/1867 "2020-04-02T21:10:56Z")
[Memo: Some in US may not get stimulus checks until August](https://apnews.com/58fd3ecc3c35e191e04a880a849b8d63). > [@](#): > > The document from the House Ways and Means Committee says the IRS will make about 60 million payments to Americans through direct deposit in mid-April, likely the week of April 13. The IRS has direct deposit information for these individuals from their 2018 or 2019 tax returns. > > Then, starting the week of May 4, the IRS will begin issuing paper checks to individuals, the memo says. The paper checks will be issued at a rate of about 5 million per week, which means it could take up to 20 weeks to get all the checks out. That timeline would delay some checks until the week of Aug. 17. ---
**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:** [April 2, 2020, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/1868 "2020-04-02T21:17:31Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > They seem to have a fairly low per-capita infection rate, so it’s unlikely that they’re at capacity. > > I’d venture to guess that it’s delayed reporting of numbers, minus information to the contrary. They were not previously reporting deaths in elderly care homes, so they have now started to include those figures. Sounds like they haven’t accounted for all of those yet so their numbers will be continue to be inflated for a short time. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2020, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/1869 "2020-04-02T21:18:35Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > FDNY and Long Island EMS have been ordered not to transport patients who can not be resuscitated to hospitals > [EMS Workers in New York City, Long Island, Receive Orders Not to...](https://www.truthorfiction.com/ems-workers-in-new-york-city-long-island-receive-orders-not-to-transport-patients-who-cannot-be-resuscitated-in-the-field/) Which is another way of saying “don’t bring corpses to the hospital.” I don’t know about New York, but some places have a rule where someone isn’t dead until an official says that they are dead, and an obvious corpse has to be carried to the hospital to become officially dead there. ---
**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:** [April 2, 2020, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/1870 "2020-04-02T21:32:08Z")
^ This is why no one ever dies in a Las Vegas casino resort. ---
**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:** [April 2, 2020, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/1871 "2020-04-02T22:27:27Z")
What’s new in Austria? [ul] [li] **Medical** [/li] [list] [li] The government is proactively testing a sample of 1500 workers in key jobs, including doctors, care workers, and supermarket staff, in part to estimate what proportion of the general population are infected but asymptomatic. So far 1161 of these tests have been carried out; 6 of them (0.52%) were positive for coronavirus. So perhaps the number of unreported cases in the population at large is not as great as some people fear.[/li] [li] Until today, coronavirus tests in Vienna were required to be carried out by doctors. The rules have now been changed to allow paramedics to carry out the tests, freeing up doctors for duties more demanding of their medical expertise.[/li] [li] The health ministry is analyzing the spread of the virus. It has so far identified 40 distinct clusters of infected people, the first of which originated with holidaymakers returning from Italy.[/li] [li] 140,000 people have installed the Red Cross’s “Stopp Corona” app. This app monitors users’ movements; whenever a user tests positive for coronavirus, a message is sent to all other users who were recently in close proximity asking them to get tested themselves.[/li] [li] Some time ago I reported that the main convention centre in Vienna was being converted into a hospital for coronavirus patients. (Similar makeshift hospitals were being set up in other cities.) Today the hospital received its first patients.[/li][/ul] [li] **Political** [/li] [ul] [li] The rate at which new cases are being confirmed continues to fall. The chancellor said on 24 March that the restrictions on movement might be eased once the doubling period for new cases falls to 14 days. So far it looks like this goal might be soon reached. However, the country’s health minister today seemingly walked this back a bit, saying that the true goal was getting a replication factor of less than one, and that it is too early to claim that we can currently see the light at the end of the tunnel.[/li] [li] Tomorrow parliament is expected to pass a third major aid package. Among its provisions:[/li][list][li]If any tenant is unable, due to the coronavirus crisis, to pay the rent on their home between 1 April and 30 June, then this will not be considered a legally enforceable ground for the landlord to terminate their rental contract. Tenants will have until the end of the year to pay the rent (with a maximum of 4% interest).[/li][li] Media companies will receive financial aid. Publishers of newspapers and magazines will receive a one-time grant of €4 for every issue sold in 2019.[/li][li] Municipal governments will be granted greater authority to pedestrianize streets. This will allow people to spread out more when going for walks. Many streets are devoid of automobile traffic these days anyway.[/li][/ul] [li] Previous aid packages from the Austrian government have arranged to pay 80% of furloughed employees’ salaries. Now the EU at large is stepping up with a further €100 billion for this purpose, to be distributed among EU countries in proportion to need.[/li] [li] The Czech Republic has announced that it will extend its border closure with Austria to at least 24 April.[/li] [li] Following an enabling act in Hungary that handed prime minister Viktor Orbán dictatorial powers indefinitely, 14 EU countries have signed a declaration in support of democracy and the rule of law and opposing the unchecked use of emergency powers. The declaration does not name Hungary specifically, though the situation there is very obviously the impetus. Austria is conspicuously absent from the list of signatories.[/li] [li] I earlier reported that federally operated gardens were to reopen in Vienna. This hasn’t yet happened due to ongoing disagreements between the federal and state governments.[/li] [/list] [li] **Miscellaneous** [/li] [ul] [li] According to a recent poll by a market research institute, 38% of Austrians are coping well with the mandatory self-isolation regulations (down from 47% last week). Nonetheless, 97% report that they will abide by the restrictions. When asked what they are doing more of during these times of self-isolation, 49% said cleaning, 45% said cooking, 18% fitness, and 13% cuddling and having sex.[/li] [li] Current statistics: 11,129 confirmed infections, 158 dead, 1749 recovered. According to Worldometer, Austria ranks #7 among countries (excluding microstates) in confirmed cases per capita and #14 in deaths per capita. The country has conducted 92,190 coronavirus tests. The national health advice hotline received nearly half a million calls in March.[/li][/ul] [/list] ---
**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:** [April 2, 2020, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/1872 "2020-04-02T22:53:59Z")
[US allowing longer shifts at nuclear plants in pandemic](https://apnews.com/032cc5622d921e45311d71f52c37f1b9) > [@](#): > > The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s decision to temporarily allow longer worker shifts is one way the industry is scrambling to keep up mandatory staffing levels through what will be weeks or months more of the outbreak. > > The shift extensions would allow workers to be on the job for up to 86 hours a week. Currently, they’re generally allowed to work up to 72 hours in a seven-day period. As part of the waiver, workers could be assigned to 12-hour shifts for as many as 14 days in a row. > > Nuclear plant workers already are having their temperatures checked on arrival for each shift, and employers are studying options including having workers temporarily live at plants full-time. > > Ho Nieh, the NRC’s director of reactor regulation, discussed the provision for longer work hours with utility industry executives and others on Thursday. Nieh said federal inspectors on and off site would monitor so that no plant works its employees to the point of bleariness. Regulators would approve, and if needed revoke, expanded shifts on a plant-by-plant basis, Nieh said. > [@](#): > > There are nuclear reactors in 30 states. In 12 states, nuclear plants provide 30 percent or more of their power. Like the coal industry, however, the U.S. nuclear power industry has struggled in the marketplace as prices of natural gas and renewable energy plunge. > > The NRC closely regulates total staffing and staff hours as a condition of reactors’ continued operation. Fatigue has often been deemed a factor in accidents at nuclear plants, as in the former Soviet Union’s 1986 Chernobyl disaster, where key plant staffers had worked multiple shifts. > > In the United States in recent days, nuclear plants are reporting some of the first coronavirus cases among their workers. > [@](#): > > No plant had received a work-hour waiver as of Thursday, regulators said. > > With the expanded hours, managers could shift nuclear plants from five or six crew rotations a day to two — a day shift and a night shift, of 12 hours, Thomas Basso, the senior director of regulatory affairs at the industry’s Nuclear Energy Institute, told regulators Thursday. > > That way, plants could minimize exposures and risks of infection among workers, Basso said, increasing the chances of keeping enough workers healthy however long the pandemic lasts. ---
**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:** [April 2, 2020, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/1873 "2020-04-02T22:55:35Z")
[Democratic Party delays nominating convention until week of 17 August; it was scheduled for mid-July.](https://apnews.com/8176f4cb22a70a365db78c348db1a3c9) ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2020, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/1874 "2020-04-02T23:47:26Z")
> [@psychobunny](#): > > What is happening in France? They have had over 1300 new deaths today. That is nearly twice as much as any other country. Have their hospitals reached the saturation point? It’s a reporting change. From Worldometers: > [@Worldometers](#): > > France today reported 884 additional deaths that have occurred in nursing homes over the past days and weeks. The French Government did not include these deaths in their official count, as their count only takes into consideration deaths of hospitalized patients. Following international standards of correct inclusion, our statistics will include these deaths, and will add them to the April 2, 2020 count following the attribution criteria of date of report. > > If and when the French government determines and communicates the correct distribution of these additional deaths over time, we will adjust the historical data accordingly. ---
**Author:** ![OldOlds](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a3d4f5/32.png) [@OldOlds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldOlds)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/1875 "2020-04-03T00:06:33Z")
> [@Green\_Bean](#): > > Thanks for posting this. It helps to know of things to watch for. > > I find this morbidly hilarious. “Go on back to your home country. I’m sure the docking fees at Port of Bolivia aren’t too high.” > > I have many issues with corporations avoiding US/European taxes and safety and labor regulations by using flags of convenience and similar methods. It’s especially galling when the flag countries are ones that the ship has never even been to. I feel for the passengers, but I hope this serves as a wake-up call. I had the same thought- naturally I don’t want the passengers to suffer, but yeah, you don’t want to pay US taxes, but when the chips are down you want the US infrastructure there for you. ---
**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:** [April 3, 2020, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/1876 "2020-04-03T00:13:19Z")
> [@OldOlds](#): > > I had the same thought- naturally I don’t want the passengers to suffer, but yeah, you don’t want to pay US taxes, but when the chips are down you want the US infrastructure there for you. That also describes the vast majority of Americans, IME. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/1877 "2020-04-03T00:54:06Z")
> [@Green\_Bean](#): > > I have many issues with corporations avoiding US/European taxes and safety and labor regulations by using flags of convenience and similar methods. It’s especially galling when the flag countries are ones that the ship has never even been to. I feel for the passengers, but I hope this serves as a wake-up call. Well, the passengers are the ones who would have paid the price if DeSantis hadn’t realized what a PR disaster it would be. Just don’t let Congress get away with writing laws that let the cruise companies pull this sort of dodge. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/1878 "2020-04-03T01:11:20Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > If you search for toilet paper on Amazon, at the bottom of the filters on the left (on desktop), you are given the options, “New” and “Used”. In my local shop, the only type available is “recycled”. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/1879 "2020-04-03T01:15:21Z")
> [@](#): > > Such were the expectations for the Navy hospital ship U.S.N.S. Comfort that when it chugged into New York Harbor this week, throngs of people, momentarily forgetting the strictures of social distancing, crammed together along Manhattan’s west side to catch a glimpse. > > On Thursday, though, the huge white vessel, which officials had promised would bring succor to a city on the brink, sat mostly empty, infuriating local hospital executives. The ship’s 1,000 beds are largely unused, its 1,200-member crew mostly idle. > > Only three patients had been transferred to the ship, officials said, even as New York hospitals struggled to find space for the thousands infected with the coronavirus. Another Navy hospital ship, the U.S.N.S. Mercy, docked in Los Angeles, has had a total of 15 patients, officials said… > > A tangle of military protocols and bureaucratic hurdles has prevented the Comfort from accepting many patients at all. > **[The 1,000-Bed Comfort Was Supposed to Aid New York. It Has 20 Patients....](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/02/nyregion/ny-coronavirus-usns-comfort.html)** > > “It’s a joke,” said a top hospital executive, whose facilities are packed with coronavirus patients. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/1880 "2020-04-03T01:38:36Z")
There’s a dozen cruise ships hanging around Australia, with no place to dock. I _think_ they have all discharged passengers, and are now crew only. I _hope_ that they have moved the crew out of quarters, and into individual cabins. The state premiers are all “We don’t want them, make them go home.” Which is understandable, but at the same time represents the worst and least attractive aspect of self-interested nationalism. We were happy to have them when they were visiting Australian ports with 2000 ~ 3000 passengers. Now they’ve just got poor people from the Philippines, all should go back to their poor countries to be sick and die there. ---
**Author:** ![bengangmo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/1881 "2020-04-03T02:05:58Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > There’s a dozen cruise ships hanging around Australia, with no place to dock. I _think_ they have all discharged passengers, and are now crew only. I _hope_ that they have moved the crew out of quarters, and into individual cabins. > > The state premiers are all “We don’t want them, make them go home.” Which is understandable, but at the same time represents the worst and least attractive aspect of self-interested nationalism. We were happy to have them when they were visiting Australian ports with 2000 ~ 3000 passengers. Now they’ve just got poor people from the Philippines, all should go back to their poor countries to be sick and die there. I understand some / many of these ships are registered under Australian flags or are Australian owned? ---
**Author:** ![bengangmo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/1882 "2020-04-03T02:12:12Z")
> [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](#): > > They were not previously reporting deaths in elderly care homes, so they have now started to include those figures. Sounds like they haven’t accounted for all of those yet so their numbers will be continue to be inflated for a short time. Hmmm… What will be interesting when the dust settles on this is which countries are measuring how, deaths vs infections vs tests done to see what and who has handled the crisis well [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758.md?page=93) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758.md?page=95)