While it does appear as if the curve of new infections may have flattened today, I’m hesitant to give it much credence. As we’ve pretty much all noted, there are still too many variables at this stage, not the least of which is that this is still almost completely confined to China.
Now
20627 Infected
426 Dead
Smaller percentage of a larger number - got it, thanks.
Regards,
Shodan
My job has two employees in China. One also works as a teacher, and has actually been stateside for over two weeks now. He and his family are probably here until the schools start up again. The other is in Shanghai, and I’m relieved that virtually everyone employed here can work remotely. I hope she and her family stay safe, and go out as little as possible.
My wife came back from Shanghai yesterday. She had to go thru a half dozen temperature checks to get to the airport grounds. No one goes outside without a mask on. Every condo or little residential area has temperature checks and goes into lockdown if there is one person with a temperature.
Looks like Chinese leadership plan is to let this thing burn out in the big cities.
24553 Infected
492 Deaths
Correction: the everywhere else was everywhere else, not only elsewhere else in China. The mortality rate outside of Hubei is, so far, running comparable to seasonal influenza’s rate.
I’d like to thank everyone for their stories of how this has affected them.
I see that a Princess lines cruise ship has been quarantined in Japan after 10 passengers tested positive for the virus. 14 day quarantine. We know what’s going to happen next.
“Norovirus Devastates Unfortunate Passengers”
And up to now it has been very effective. The numbers of infected and deaths are published region-by-region and the Shanghai number has been pretty flat for a while, even as it borders the 2nd worst region after Hubei.
I have heard a few stories about people from Wuhan being harassed, though nothing too serious yet. For example, there is a family next door to my friend that are from Wuhan but stayed in Shanghai during Chinese new year. However, another neighbour reported them, and the police came and they had to answer a lot of questions for a long time, and get tested and retested, because they had no documents to prove what their recent movements had been (why would they?). Eventually my friend was able to vouch that they had not left Shanghai.
But yeah, that’s how seriously they are taking it, and the city remains a ghost town.
Interesting situation in Japan:
So what do they do if several more develop symptoms in the next 14 days, particularly if it includes crew members who are bringing food to people?
Being cooped up in a small cabin for 14 days would make me stir crazy.
Double post
“How are they defining “asymptomatic”? The article does use that word but also says the child showed radiographic ground-glass lung opacities and reading what that means certainly sounds like a symptom…”
“Symptoms” are usually something experienced and noted by the patient, for example, a sore throat. A “finding” or “sign” is something that can be observed by others, such as an x-ray.
In this case asymptomatic almost certainly means that they didn’t feel ill.
Exactly. The adult family members had symptoms of “fever, upper or lower respiratory tract symptoms, or diarrhoea, or a combination of these 3–6 days after exposure” or, in the case of the over 60 year older family members, more “systemic symptoms.”
The ten year old seemed just fine. No fever, no fast or hard breathing, no cough, no runny nose, no sore throat, no diarrhea, seemed fine. But was positive for the virus and had findings on CT of the lungs. The two of the family in their 30s initially presented with diarrhea as the first symptom.
This rant posted on Linked In is being shared extensively here in China. It compares the response and attitudes to H1N1 to coronavirus and argues that China is being stigmatized and treated unfairly.
He makes some good points, even if as a nitpick it may not be accurate to refer to it as “United States 2009 H1N1” when it is thought to have originated in Mexico.
H1N1 continues to inflict great death and suffering this season. I couldn’t find a breakdown of deaths by flu type, but overall 10,000 have died in this winter season of flu in the US.
Isn’t 18,449 only 0.03% of 60,000,000?
Get a life.
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As the article points out, this was just a number announced at the time but which the CDC now thinks was a significant under-estimate.
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2019-nCOV may have a comparable death rate. It’s only Hubei that is reporting a high death rate right now, and that may be because of an overstressed medical system there meaning milder cases are not being recorded.
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The specifics of the numbers aren’t that relevant to the point of the article.
The point is that China is being treated unfairly given that it is taking extreme measures, and a big economic hit, to curtail the spread of a new virus strain. This is completely unlike what happened with the H1N1 virus, which largely spread out of the US, in 2009.
An overstressed medical system also might not be able to render appropriate treatment to everyone, where a medical system that isn’t so stressed might have a better survival rate simply because it is able to properly treat everyone.
31480 Infected
639 Deaths