[ul]
[li] The government has indicated that there are plans for a further easing of international travel restrictions. Details will be given on Wednesday.[/li][li] In a further bid to increase employment, the government is now promising businesses a bonus of €2000 for every apprentice they hire (or have hired) between 16 March and 31 October.[/li][li] There’s been a small spike in new cases in Vienna, in part due to an outbreak at an Amazon distribution centre. Apart from one new case in Upper Austria, Vienna was the only federal state today to report new infections.[/li][li] The federal chancellor today promised that should a coronavirus vaccine become available, no one will be legally required to use it.[/li][li] Current statistics: 16,731 confirmed infections, 668 deaths, 15,593 recovered.[/li][/ul]
Maybe a less virulent strain is emerging, which is welcome news, but who just switched off the more virulent strains out there? Won’t the entire menagerie continue to circulate around the world?
Since viruses normally mutate, how many mutations typically happen within a person while they are infected? If they are initially infected with 100% of strain A, how many other strains will that mutate into during the time that they are infected?
Today Panama lifted the total quarantine that has been in effect since near the end of March. People are now allowed to move freely between 5 AM and 7 PM everyday. From 7 PM until 5 AM a curfew remains in effect. Masks and social distancing are still required outside the house. Previously men were allowed to leave the house for essential shopping only 4 hours a week (during hours based on their ID) and women 6 hours a week, on different days for men and women.
Today is also the opening of “Block 2” of economic activities, including public works construction, industry, and non-metallic mining. Parks, recreation areas, sport fields, and religious venues are allowed to open at 25% of capacity with social distancing in effect.
While it’s a great relief to be able to move freely again - today is the first time I’ve been out of the house on a Monday for two months, I wonder what effect this is going to have. Three weeks ago they opened Block 1, which included repair workshops, plumbers, electricians, and other maintenance workers, and fishing.
A week ago, two weeks after the opening of Block 1, the number of new cases per day almost tripled. It had been cruising along at 150-170 a day and apparently falling slowly, when it suddenly went up. It’s been at 400 or more the last 4 days, higher than it’s ever been. Despite the limited number of industries opening up in Block 1, I wonder if the surge was due to that, and what that will mean two weeks from today.
The vast majority of cases in Panama (82%) are from the Panama City metropolitan area (which accounts for almost half the country’s population). Some of the more isolated provinces have only a handful of cases. Of the recent new cases, 58% have come from just 8 localities: a prison just east of the city, a poor district in the old part of town, and six low income suburbs east and west of the city.
[ul]
[li] A survey of Austrian businesses has revealed that 4 out of 5 of them have been negatively impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, and 2 out of 3 have furloughed their employees (and applied to the government’s scheme to cover their salaries). 7% of respondents say they have enough cash to continue operating for only two more months; 23% say they have enough for two to four months, 19% for four to six months, 20% for more than six months, and 31% say they have no liquidity problems at all.[/li][li] Tomorrow the city of Vienna will be reopening pensioners’ clubs.[/li][li] Current statistics: 16,733 confirmed infections, 668 deaths, 15,596 recovered.[/li][/ul]
Each of the following points (accessed at the link just above) takes you to a link where that particular question is dealt with in some detail. This should not be paywalled. I don’t know if you have to “register” or something… but you should ultimately be able to read the article at no charge.
Yes. Firstly, immunity isn’t a black/white yes/no kind of thing (there are all kinds of different parts of an immune response), and secondly symptoms are often a symptom of immune response, not directly symptoms of infection.
Taiwan’s Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) on Tuesday (June 2) announced zero new cases of Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19), marking 51 days without a new local infection.
During his daily press conference on Tuesday afternoon, Minister of Health and Welfare and CECC head Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) announced there were no new cases of coronavirus for the seventh day in a row. Taiwan’s total number of cases still stands at 443.
Also:
Up until now, only seven patients have succumbed to the disease, while 427 have been released from hospital isolation. This leaves only nine patients still undergoing treatment for COVID-19 in Taiwan.
They haven’t declared Mission Accomplishment, but it’s pretty well under control now. The problems will only happen when the borders are reopened and more infected people will visit.
How are they documenting this? I mean, it seems likely - but anyone who caught it during the protests would just now be showing symptoms, and probably not yet be at the point of being tested / confirmed.
Interesting! This study from Brazil seems to suggest temperature increase slows down transmission up to 25.8 C (around 78 F), but your article (from the United States) says it doesn’t make a difference once you get over 52 F. That’s a big difference! I wonder if it’s more about behavior (e.g., how much time people are spending outside) and Americans and Brazilians differ in terms of what they consider warm weather.
Another slow news day in Austria. The few government press conferences held today mostly just repeated information that had already been anounced in the previous days. Even the coronavirus news ticker on the Austrian news site I follow signed off four hours early today because there was nothing going on. And there’s been only one new coronavirus-related death reported in the past week.
From now on I’ll just refrain from posting on days where there is no news. So if you don’t hear from me on a given day, or for several days in a row, you can just assume that it’s because things are getting back to normal in Austria, at least in fits and starts.