Is their version somehow different to ours? What difference it will it make? We will be self generating 10,000 a day by the end of the week, it will make no difference now.

In times of war there will be information and dis-information to prevent public panic. Which is why I don't claim to know but it will happen.

There's a useful article on the BBC website, here:  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-51979654

 It emphasises that some people would have died anyway, just from the usual range of factors, even without Covid-19.

The 'overall average, of 0.9% in chart below is obviously very crude, but you can mentally adjust the line (sloping top left to somewhere to the right in the 80+

Somebody is trying to get the message across!

Unsurprisingly a lot of travel companies are trying to get people to accept vouchers for cancelled holidays rather than cash refunds.

It is a good article and reminds us all that the "circle of life" carries on with or without coronavirus: this sentence is especially relevant.

"Every year more than 500,000 people die in England and Wales"

It's very likely that Covid-19 is giving a "nudge" to those figures, i.e. people who are close to death already are seeing that accelerate due to the virus.

The chart you quoted is good as well: it shows quite clearly that the vast, vast majority of cases will indeed involve a co-morbidity of some sorts. It may well be that people are borderline diabetic etc for example without realising it, or have mild high blood pressure but haven't had it checked. These are, I reckon, what's responsible for some of the "we're seeing 40-year-olds coming in" type events.

It's also worth mentioning that at 40 you are offered a thorough going-over by the NHS. It's not compulsory and I daresay many people ignore it, but I also suspect after this more people will take up the offier! If nothing else, it's good reassurance.

(I admit I didn't take it up myself, but that's because at 39, having gone to the doctor for the first time in 18 years, they gave me the full range of tests. Aside from being low on Vitamin D, everything came back clear... they took my blood pressure a total of 4 times, perhaps they thought it should be higher than it was.)

None of this incidentally precludes the cases where younger people suddenly fall very ill without previous known illnesses, but scientificially there will be *something* causing them to succumb. I'd imagine there's intense research going on to find out what these hidden factors are!

If this continues I think the govt have to step in and order the supermarkets to stop this.One way could be that the supermarkets remove all trollies,hand baskets only and 1 per customer along with a maximum daily spend of £30 and only 2 of any item.

Its all well and good closing down the hospitality sector but surley going into a supermarket the risk is far far greater than going to a restaurant,bar,cinema etc . Iam really fearful of now going into a supermarket and instead using my local premier shop that isn`t rammed full of people and has most things you need.Yesterday evening I went in and was gobsmacked to see they had bread try getting aloaf of bread in Tesco`s atm

I've got flights and a hotel booked for Japan in late October, travelling with a friend (using up the "2 for 1" voucher I get each year with my Amex). Due to them faffing around with the booking after they decided to stop selling the cabin I'm in on the Tokyo route, the flights are now considered a "cash" booking rather than Avios.

I'd be happy enough just to push that out a year should the need arise, but I've a sneaky feeling we'll be in the dip between the peaks by then. Hotel wise, my room's a prepaid cash booking, while my friend's is flexible via points. IHG, who run the Strings hotel that I'm staying in, have a policy of full refunds, no questions asked, out to April. I would imagine that will extend through the year on a month-by-month basis.

Worst case for me: I'll go the following year. I'm still hopeful that things will have died down by late October though, but as ever... we'll see!

Yeah, one rule for the plebs...

Indeed.  I took full advantage of that and the  major one when I turned 55 - including screening for bowel cancer - unpleasant  but  if they find polyps in your  50s and remove them, it might save you from cancer in your 60s (fortunately, I was clear).  I had an operation in the autumn for an umbilical hernia  and had another full MOT before that.  I didn't get the results but the op went ahead, so I assume it was all OK.

I'm back in a dip on the emotional roller-coaster today. Just had a text from work saying the office will be open Monday and Tuesday so staff can collect required stuff, then will be closing apart from a skeleton support staff (IT, HR, etc). I'll then be working from home until further notice. I didn't want this. I wanted to remain working part from home, part from the office. 

I hate this.

For some reason the webcam on my iMac is refusing to work at the moment (getting an error message saying “camera may be in use by another application” even though no other applications are open!) Very annoying when trying to talk to parents today. 

Regarding underlying health I am lucky that in my previous job I had BUPA cover which included a comprehensive health check every two years. I had my last one a few months ago at the age of 42 and I am apparently extremely healthy for my age, which is good to know. But that of course seems to be no guarantee that I might not be one of the unlucky ones with this virus. 

It also crosses my mind that having left my job I no longer have the excellent life insurance that would have brought my family 10 times my salary if the worst happened. 

Weather.us, of all places, have a tracker now. Hard to know how often it is updated but handy all the same. 

https://meteologix.com/ie/corona-virus/europe/covid19-cases/20200322-1300z.html

Completely agree. It is an absolute joke. 

UK death total appears to be up 53. Oddly I think that is exactly the same as yesterday and is therefore good news. 

Betfair has a market on whether the Olympics will go ahead in July. “No” is currently the 90% favourite but you can still bank 10% on what IMO is a complete certainty. 

Where have you seen this? Nothing on Sky News.

We will get through this together, and we will beat the virus.

To win this fight, we need everyone to follow our advice: as far as possible, we want you to stay at home. The more effectively everyone does this, the faster this country will recover.#StayHomeSaveLives

— Boris Johnson #StayHomeSaveLives (@BorisJohnson) March 22, 2020

Brian, sadly that’s yesterday’s figure I think.