There’s a case in Rhode Island, someone who travelled to Italy. And I thought I saw something about a case in Chicago.
And the Pope has had a cold for the past few days and everyone is wondering about him.
There are currently two cases in Cook County, Illinois, which is pretty much “Chicago”.
The NYT article that DSeid linked to is a little unclear about testing. It says that the CDC will have 75,000 kits available and shipped within 2 weeks. The former head of the FDC says that labs will have the ability to test 10 to 20 thousand a day by the end of the week.
Perhaps the CDC kits are bedside or office type tests. POS if you will.
There is also this, from the same article,
“Dr. Schaffner said he had a patient come in earlier this week who had developed symptoms of an upper respiratory infection after traveling to Italy, where a cluster of coronavirus infections has been observed. He referred the patient to the state laboratory, but officials there said she could not be tested because she did not meet the C.D.C. testing criteria at the time.”
This was my experience, the criteria was too restrictive.
Warning: anecdotal information ahead.
I work for a large tech company in Silicon Valley, which has a substantial number of Chinese employees (by both ethnicity and citizenship). Since returning from the holidays in January, I and many of my friends and colleagues came down with what seemed like a bad cold or flu. For me, it started with a headache and fever, then progressed into a sore throat and runny nose, with continuing muscle aches, night sweats, headaches and fatigue. Others reported similar symptoms, although relatively few people had a strong cough.
My symptoms lasted about 2-3 weeks, including an apparent recovery at about 1 week before they returned even worse than initially.
For me, it was quite unpleasant but never bad enough to go see a doctor for what I presumed was just a particularly bad cold. Friends who did go said that their “flu test” came back negative and they were just given the usual advice to stay hydrated, etc. Of course, no one has been tested for COVID-19, since we didn’t meet any of the indications.
We’ve all been joking that we must’ve gotten it anyway. I never believed that was likely, since it wasn’t that bad and there wasn’t much of a lower respiratory component.
But that article about the teenager from Washington is interesting - it pretty much describes my symptoms and experience exactly. And if it’s really been circulating in Washington since January, you’d expect it to be floating around the Bay Area as well.
If so, it’s a pretty good sign, because while it was definitely no fun it wasn’t that bad in absolute terms, and it suggests the actual fatality rate will be substantially lower due to the large number of mildly symptomatic people who don’t bother to get treated or tested and are omitted from the statistics.
Peripheral note: at a Dollar Tree store today, I did note they seemed a bit low on inventory (not just in health care items, either), but whether that represents supply issues or employees just not having gotten around to restocking or just a heavy shopping day, I can’t say for sure. It wasn’t that busy when I was in there about mid-afternoon.
Oh, it’s defintiely in northern California. A few days ago two people tested positive: one in Solano County and one in Santa Clara County. Both were what they call community transmission, which means there’s no known link back to China or somewhere else with an outbreak. Just looking them up, I find a new report that two health workers in Solano and Alameda Counties have presumptive cases.
So it’s there, it’s in Washington state, it’s in Oregon. It’ll be in the rest of the country soon.
Coronavirus loose in Texas after CDC releases person who tested positive, according to San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg.
I’m sure that will calm the, <checks notes>, New York Stock Exchange.
This won’t help. (Reuters)
89,071 confirmed infections
3,044 dead
45,074 recovered
Many thanks to everyone who has been posting news all day; y’all totally fucking rock!
That’s interesting. I wonder if you can get tested after-the-fact. Not for your benefit, but if the CDC or someone wants to track it.
Not yet. The test is being developed.
My symptoms have been gone for a while, so I don’t think that would prove anything at this point.
I’m starting to suspect that the rate of asymptomatic or mild infection has been massively underestimated, that COVID-19 is actually widespread throughout the US and the world right now, and we are only seeing reports of the most severe cases because they’re the ones who get tested for it. Even countries testing more aggressively than the US are not checking everyone with a case of the sniffles.
I suspect in the next two weeks we’ll discover COVID-19 is 1-2x more deadly than normal seasonal influenza but that most people just get unexceptional cold and flu symptoms and recover. Obviously this would still be serious and many people will die, but it’s hardly the collapse of civilization.
I agree with that, the danger of the virus has been grossly overestimated.
The danger is more peoples’ reaction to the virus, and the economic fallout, which certainly can be serious.
Colds don’t typically cause a fever. More likely you had seasonal flu, which is widespread in California now.
Seattle/King County Update:
14 cases
5 deaths
News conference is ongoing.
Ugh, I wish territorial BS would stop with breaking news. During the news conference one doctor stated different figures 18 new cases and 6 deaths. It appears that depending upon where the patient is taken to a hospital (different county) they didn’t report the numbers to the state. So there is an additional death in Snohomish County - and the state didn’t include it in their report. They should just do a Washington State news conference and report the area rather than at the county level.
Ooh, my little pretty one, my viral one
When you gonna give me some time, Corona?
Ooh, you make my fever run, my motor run
Got it coming off a cruise line, Corona!
Never gonna stop, give it up, such a deathly find
I always get it up, for the touch of the sickly kind
My, my, my, aye-aye, whoa!
M-m-m-my Corona!