Nothing arrived here !

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BTW, talking of irresponsible stupidity, this was allowed to happen in Madrid on 9 March, even though Italian ICU doctors had already started warning. 

 

Maybe his typist is off sick with coronavirus.

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The point I was responding to was closing supermarkets on Sundays, during this crisis, so they can concentrate on getting home deliveries out on that day.  If they can do that, there should be fewer people out shopping during the week.  
However, I do appreciate there are still some people working long hours.

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Very important right now - hopefully that will be addressed in today's briefing 

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Daily breakdown of the data from PHE

UK data 

• Daily confirmed Cases - 4,450 (+206)


• Patients Recovered - 135 (no change) - Current daily high for recovered patients 42 (22/03) - Data will be updated in due course a new system is in development.


• Total UK deaths - 3,605 (+684)

English data

Top 10 Local Authorities with the highest confirmed cases

1. Birmingham: 984


2. Hampshire: 749


3. Sheffield: 715


4. Surrey: 649


5. Hertfordshire: 637


6. Kent: 621


7. Brent: 601


8. Southwark: 566


9. Cumbria: 564


10. Lambeth: 563

Local Authorities with the fewest confirmed cases

• Rutland: 6


• Isle of Wight: 19


• Kingston upon Hull, City of: 21


• Hartlepool: 23


• North Lincolnshire: 29


• North East Lincolnshire: 29


• Darlington: 32


• Bracknell Forest: 36


• Blackpool: 41


• Blackburn with Darwen: 43

Regional data

• London - 10,247 (+956) 


• Midlands - 5,537 (+687) 


• North East and Yorkshire - 3,823 (+554) 


• South East - 3,723 (+331) 


• North West - 3,537 (+471) 


• East of England - 2,384 (+151) 


• South West - 1,386 (+132) 

All changes with yesterday. Data based up to 9am today for new cases and up to 5pm yesterday for new confirmed coronavirus deaths. Not all deaths occurred in the 24hr period.

I wonder if it was intended to discourage people from going out over Easter?  Maybe the weather forecast has made them think again and they’re concentrating on getting us to stay home this weekend. 

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As Caz said, the idea would be to increase significantly the number of home deliveries. As for you requiring to shop on Sundays, you'd have to adapt. There is no perfect solution anyway. 

Maybe it's the typewriter that's susceptible? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith_Corona

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I had quite a few junk mails within the last 2 weeks, but nothing at all for last 3 days. 

I'm not sure if that's the reason

"I am writing to you to update you on the steps we are taking to combat coronavirus.

In just a few short weeks, everyday life in this country has changed dramatically. We all feel the profound impact of coronavirus not just on ourselves, but on our loved ones and our communities.

I understand completely the difficulties this disruption has caused to your lives, businesses and jobs. But the action we have taken is absolutely necessary, for one very simple reason.

If too many people become seriously unwell at one time, the NHS will be unable to cope. This will cost lives. We must slow the spread of the disease, and reduce the number of people needing hospital treatment in order to save as many lives as possible.

That is why we are giving one simple instruction - you must stay at home.

You should not meet friends or relatives who do not live in your home. You may only leave your home for very limited purposes, such as buying food and medicine, exercising once a day and seeking medical attention. You can travel to and from work but should work from home if you can.

When you do have to leave your home, you should ensure, wherever possible, that you are two metres apart from anyone outside of your household.

These rules must be observed. So, if people break the rules, the police will issue fines and disperse gatherings.

I know many of you will be deeply worried about the financial impact on you and your family. The government will do whatever it takes to help you make ends meet and put food on the table.

The enclosed leaflet sets out more detail about the support available and the rules you need to follow. You can also find the latest advice at gov.uk/coronavirus

From the start, we have sought to put in the right measures at the right time. We will not hesitate to go further if that is what the scientific and medical advice tells us we must do.

It's important for me to level with you - we know things will get worse before they get better. But we are making the right preparations, and the more we all follow the rules, the fewer lives will be lost and the sooner life can return to normal.

I want to thank everyone who is working flat out to beat the virus, in particular the staff in our fantastic NHS and care sector across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. It has been truly inspirational to see our doctors, nurses and other carers rise magnificently to the needs of the hour.
 
 Thousands of retired doctors and nurses are returning to the NHS - and hundreds of thousands of citizens are volunteering to help the most vulnerable. It is with that great British spirit that we will beat coronavirus and we will beat it together.

That is why, at this moment of national emergency, I urge you, please, to stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives.

Boris Johnson"

 

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Well I wouldn't miss Sunday opening during this crisis. Now that the panic buying has reduced, I can get most things after work.

I am working 0600-1800 Mon-Fri so even on a 60 hour week I can manage it.

I can get to Sainsbury's at 1815hrs in the evening and the option for Saturday remains but I would avoid that like the plague! 

  I remember using one of those!  

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World class, world leading, millions of PPE. 

No queues mid-afternoon at Waitrose (Wed) or co-op (today, Fri) or COOK shop (also today). Plenty of space inside and at COOK I was the only customer. I'd rather pick a time when there are no queues than try for the (crowded, so I hear) special OAP's hour or eat dry pasts for a week while waiting for a slot.

COOK was serving at the door - you had to hand in your request there and it was brought to you (If you haven't seen COOK, it does high quality  frozen ready meals)

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Italy have reported 4,585 new cases and 766 new deaths

• New cases down 83


• New deaths up 6

Changes with yesterday

Regional breakdown of Coronavirus deaths so far.

• London - 1,052 (+162) 


• Midlands - 693 (+150) 


• North East and Yorkshire - 369 (+62) 


• North West - 365 (+89) 


• South East - 345 (+41) 


• East of England - 308 (+66) 


• South West - 134 (+36) 

London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust has recorded the most deaths so far with 149 (+22) 

Changes are with yesterday

This is what worries me. Yes cases are steady but it seems to be 4k a day for days now. Its taken so long to drop away

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Definitely possible 4-5 weeks of lockdown is needed to start the reduction: 2 weeks of general transmission, plus two weeks of inter household transmission. I think these numbers will start falling next week

Jonathan Van Tam is a very impressive speaker - one of the few experts that’s genuinely filled me with confidence in all this.

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Peston really doesn't help himself. His questions are far to lengthy. Even I forgot the first question!

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But what we don’t know is how many tests they are doing. If that’s increasing then it’s not too bad, however, if it’s decreasing then yes it’s a worry. 

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UK have provisionally ordered 17.5 million antibodies tests although they haven't found one that works yet

Let's all hope so.

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I wonder if anyone here knows what the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases there was within England back at the end of February/start of March. From what I read in one of Scotland's national daily papers earlier this week, the first confirmed case in Scotland wasn't until the beginning of March which was 4-5 weeks after the first case in England was confirmed.

While I cannot claim to be any kind of expert on this disease and its behaviour, I think it was probably the case that there was fairly widespread community transmission of the virus within England during February and before the government raised the alert.

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