Princess Alexandra Hospital is in Harlow, Essex. Was reading yesterday from a doctor at an unspecified hospital in Essex who said things had suddenly got very bad there.

Good news for once

NW London appears to be the hotspot within London, not sure why that could be.

NW London has an older demographic compared to other boroughs. 

I don't think there's any point of analysing it to that level of detail. Likewise, why are Wolverhampton, Cumbria and Gwent hotspots compared to similar and nearby locations? There's a certain amount of chance involved, probably down to a couple of super-spreaders in each location kicking it off.

A neighbour who I wouldn't trust even if I was handed a million in mint £20’s had a friend over this morning who is certainly not living in the same house. They popped the dog (wolfhound) in the car and buggered off somewhere and returned half an hour ago from their ‘walk’. I presume from past experience they’ve been scouting the countryside looking for deer hunting opportunities or places that might yield rewards if things get worse and the police are even more invisible. So If you have a garden shed or outhouse etc it might be a good to time to ensure you secure it and if you’re a keen baseball player you should give thought to storing some of your equipment in your bedroom. Same goes for keen cricketers, golfers etc. Or do a Justin.

If this crisis continues there will be a dramatic decline in the UK deer/sheep/cattle etc population before the end of the year.

Went into the chemist earlier on and struck me as being a bit funny how we are beginning to treat one another like lepers.  Plastic shielding on the counter; gloves, and the inability to practice the slightest hint of good manners. 

+ 1 

Italian data from the last 4-days

• 21st - 6,557 new cases and 793 new deaths


• 22nd - 5,560 new cases and 651 new deaths


• 23rd - 4,789 new cases and 601 new deaths


• 24th - 5,249 new cases and 743 new deaths

The growth rate of positive cases is in single figures for the 2nd consecutive day in Italy (8.2% a 0.1% increase)

The growth rate for new patients admitted to hospitals and ICUs is 6% which is continuing to fall

FFS, the local tip (or 'recycling centre') is closed.

I figured that they'd just be allowing a handful of cars in at a time, with the rest waiting (isolated in cars) outside.

But no. I've had to unload a lot of rubbish and leave it down the side of our house. Rat city!

I bet fly-tipping is going to surge over the next month or so.

Bananas.

Wouldn't be so bad if we had either weekly rubbish collections or bin men who weren't utter arseholes. Last collection, we had a black bag sitting half proud of the bin, and another on top of this. That gobshite threw them both on the floor before taking the bin to be emptied. 

We really can't manage with one emptying every fortnight. Our weekly recycle boxes/sacks are full of cans, bottles & cardboard (we get through a lot - probs spend ~£150-£200 a week on shopping) and I compost. But the other packaging and other rubbish fills the bin within a week and s bit regardless. I use the old, redundant green bin as an overflow, and nip down to the tip every 2-3 weeks with 3 or 4 full bin bags and usually some other stuff.

Don't know what I'm going to do! I've got enough stockpiled food to last 3 months and need to start munching through it.

I certainly agree with your first paragraph. It's really hard to know what's best and only time will tell to use the old cliché. However, comparisons with the Spanish Flu epidemic may not be as helpful as you might think. Society and economy have changed hugely since then.

Err why is the deer/sheep/cattle population going to decline?

Genuine question:

Why have the government closed golf courses and not building sites?

Because it’s not a place of work, it’s leisure

Coronavirus and the lessons we can learn from the 1918-1920 Great Influenza Pandemic

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/03/coronavirus-great-influenza-pandemic-covid19-prepared-outbreak/

IMO, this country would have had a better chance of avoiding either of those here had the government taken action to mitigate against the worst effects of COVID-19 in this country many weeks before they did.

It was the lack of action by Johnson and his administration when this pandemic began in Asia and when it spread to Europe during the mid-late winter which had made the situation in this country so much worse now that it might have been otherwise.

Hopefully this decade won't follow the 1920s in ending with a crash on Wall Street leading to a depression in the 2030s as happened a century earlier.

European (geographical) confirmed cases and mortality rate (percentage) as of 8am this morning:

Apologies for crap looking chart as it is just thrown together in a rush but gives the basic idea. 

Edit. Breakdown by country and listed in order of 'sum of deaths' (highest to lowest)

In his dreams! Mind you I wouldn't want to be within Trump's dreams!