Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

We still have time to mess this up!

What fresh hell is this?

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Lighten up, Francis.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn – Nancy Pelosi

I’m only here for the duck photos.

Shelter in place is one thing. Shelter in pants is quite another.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Too inconsequential to be sued

Wetsuit optional.

… down to kool-aid drinkers and next of kin at the trump White House

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Good luck with your asparagus.

I swear, each month of 2020 will have its own history degree.

Reality always wins in the end.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

How do you get liars to care about the truth?

All your base are belong to Tunch.

How has Obama failed you today?

It’s not even safe to go out and pick up 2 days worth of poop anymore.

Fuck if i know. i just get yelled at when i try it.

Women: they get shit done

Han shot first.

This really is a full service blog.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 Coronavirus / COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Saturday/Sunday, Nov. 28-29

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Saturday/Sunday, Nov. 28-29

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43Comments

  1. 1.

    YY_Sima Qian

    Yesterday, China reported 0 new domestic confirmed cases and 1 new asymptomatic case. The asymptomatic case is reported by Manzhouli in Inner Mongolia “Autonomous” Region, a close contact of previously identified positive case, and has already been under quarantine. I am surprised that the 2 suspect cases have not yet been designated as confirmed. They must have some clinical symptoms to be classified as suspect. Perhaps they are suffering from non-COVID-19 pneumonia (such as induced by flu), but the doctors should have been able to determine that by now. There are currently 11 confirmed, 2 asymptomatic and 2 suspect cases in the city, as well as 886 Tiers 1 & 2 close contacts under quarantine.

     

    Yesterday, South Korean authorities reported an asymptomatic case imported from Mainland China, a South Korean national arriving from Chongqing Municipality (via Chengdu in Sichuan Province). The case is an engineer working at the SK Hynix semiconductor packaging plant in Chongqing. The authorities have temporarily shut the factory down and placed it under lock down, and all employees to be tested overnight. The hotel the case had stayed at is also shut down and placed under lock down, with all staff and guests tested, former guests to be traced and tested wherever they are.

     

    Over the past months there have been a handful of cases exported from Mainland China to neighboring countries (such as South Korea and Malaysia). While the relevant authorities undoubtedly launch into TTI model based on the information provided by the foreign governments, they generally do not publicize their effort as much as with domestic cases. Sometimes these exported cases turn out to be false positives. We shall see.

     

    Even if the case turns out to be a false alarm, a 24 – 48 hours shut down of a plant is very costly. This is why manufacturing and R&D/HQ facilities in China are often quite paranoid about the visitors they accept, much more stringent than the guidelines published by local governments. For example, as soon as the single case was reported at Shanghai Pudong International Airport, some facilities across China started to refuse visitors with travel history to Shanghai in the past 14 days. They will do everything possible to prevent even a single suspect case from emerging within their facilities.

     

    Yesterday, China reported 11 new imported confirmed cases and 9 imported asymptomatic cases and 4 imported suspect cases:

     

    • Xiamen in Fujian Province – 4 confirmed cases, 3 Chinese nationals returning from Russia and 1 from the US; 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Russia
    • Fuzhou in Fujian Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Japan
    • Shanghai Municipality – 3 confirmed cases, 1 Chinese nationals each returning from Russia and the US, and a Russian national coming from Russia; 4 suspect cases, no information released.
    • Chengdu in Sichuan Province – 1 confirmed case, a Nepali national coming from Nepal; 3 asymptomatic cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Nepal and Hungary (via Germany), and a Serbian national coming from Serbia (via Germany)
    • Xi’an in Shaanxi Province – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from Afghanistan (via Dubai)
    • Kunming in Yunnan Province – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from Indonesia
    • Wuwei in Gansu Province – 1 confirmed case (previously asymptomatic, the one I mentioned in yesterday’s post), a Chinese national returning from the US; the case had entered China on 11/10 at Guangzhou, and passed through the 14 day mandatory quarantine and tested negative twice (the last being 11/23); as I suspected, the case seems to be one of those relatively rare ones with greater than 14 days incubation period; authorities in Lanzhou have identified and quarantined 21 close contacts from the same Guangzhou to Lanzhou flight, and have surprisingly shared travel histories of these individuals since getting off the flight from Guangzhou, and asked people who have come in contact with the close contacts to get in touch with the authorities, I have never seen that before elsewhere in China 
    • Zhengzhou in Henan Province – 2 asymptomatic cases, no information released
    • Guangzhou in Guangdong Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Nigeria (via Cairo)
    • Huizhou in Guangdong Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Mainland resident returning from Hong Kong

     

    Yesterday, Hong Kong reported 115 new cases, 6 imported and 109 local (24 of whom with out clear sources of infection, 62 are related to dance clubs). There are another 50 preliminarily positive cases. The dance clubs outbreak has accumulated 479 cases so far.

  2. 2.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Hearing specialists across the U.S. are seeing an uptick in visits from people who only realized how much they relied on lip reading and facial expressions when people started wearing masks.

    raises hand…

  3. 3.

    Jack Canuck

    For Australia:
    – 8 new cases over the last 24 hours
    – 68 active cases (estimated)
    – 21 cases in hospital

    Here in Victoria, today was the thirtieth consecutive day with no new cases and no deaths. There are now no known active cases in Victoria (which has been the case for a week or more, I believe). Restrictions are being seriously rolled back here in Melbourne: masks are still required when indoors in any public/shared space or when distancing can’t be maintained outdoors, and stores/restaurants/pubs etc have limits on customers, there are still some relaxed limits on outdoor/indoor socialising, etc. But it’s very livable and workable. Not quite back to normal, but a hell of a lot more normal than it’s been for most of the year.

  4. 4.

    YY_Sima Qian

    Quick update from the SK Hynix NAND flash memory packaging plant at Chongqing Municipality. 49 Tier 1 close contacts and 100 Tier 2 close contacts of the asymptomatic case exported to South Korea have been identified and quarantined. 3,283 individuals from the plant and the hotel where the case stayed at have been swabbed. Of the 2,674 results obtained so far, all are negative. 493 environmental samples have been collected, all are negative.

  5. 5.

    WereBear

    @OzarkHillbilly: I also think many people didn’t realize how much their mood relies on seeing visible social smiles when they encounter others.

    It is easy to tell if someone is smiling from their eyes, but apparently this is a learned skill.

  6. 6.

    mrmoshpotato

    As coronavirus testing becomes even more critical, a lab in Berlin is hoping to speed up the process by using drones to avoid traffic and fly samples to the lab.

    I hope that works out well.

  7. 7.

    🐾BillinGlendaleCA

    @OzarkHillbilly: WHAT?

    Actually the folk that moved into the house out front, all the adults are deaf.  The daughter can talk and I think has limited hearing(I’ve seen her wearing a hearing aid) and can read lips.  So when I speak to her, I have to pull my mask down.  Her children are all hearing and love to talk.

  8. 8.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @WereBear: It’s a lot easier if one knows the person. Familiarity breeds… Something.

    @🐾BillinGlendaleCA: “Say what?” is my phrase, that and “I’m sorry…” combined with a turning of my head and holding my hand behind the ear.

  9. 9.

    Amir Khalid

    Malaysia’s daily Covid-19 numbers. Director-General of Health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah reports 1,309 new cases today in his media statement, for a cumulative reported total of 64,485 cases. Dr Noor Hisham also reports three new deaths for a total of 357 deaths — 0.55% of the cumulative reported total, 0.67% of resolved cases.

    11,481 active and contagious cases are currently in hospital; 116 are in ICU, 42 of them on respirators. Meanwhile, 1,333 patients recovered and were discharged, for a total of 52,647 patients recovered — 81.6% of the cumulative reported total.

    Four new clusters were reported today: Sungai Mulia building site in KL, Batu Lima in Sabah, Yayasan in Selangor, and Hilir in Kelantan.

    1,308 new cases today are local infections. KL has the most cases, 493: 450 in older clusters including 367 in Awan Baru building site cluster alone, 23 in Sungai Mulia building site cluster, seven close-contact screenings, and 13 other screenings. Sabah has 291 cases: 63 in older clusters, 27 in Batu Lima cluster, 130 close-contact screenings, and 71 other screenings. Selangor has 238 cases: 105 in older clusters, eight in Yayasan cluster, 49 close-contact screenings, and 76 other screenings.

    Perak has 77 cases: 71 in existing clusters, two close-contact screenings, and four other screenings. Kedah has 52 cases: 50 in existing clusters, one close-contact screening, and one other screening. Penang has 46 cases: 29 in existing clusters, six close-contact screenings, and 11 other screenings. Johor has 36 cases: 21 in existing clusters, eight close-contact screenings, and seven other screenings. Labuan has 35 cases: seven in existing clusters, and 28 other screenings.

    Negeri Sembilan has 32 cases: 31 in existing clusters, and one close-contact screening. Kelantan has six cases, all in Hilir cluster. Pahang has one case, a close-contact screening. Melaka has one case, found in other screening. And Terengganu has one case, in an existing cluster.

    Putrajaya, Sarawak and Perlis reported no new cases today.

    One new case is imported. It was reported in Johor, but with no information on country of departure.

    The three deaths today are a 64-year-old man in Perak with with diabetes, hypertension, and chronic heart disease; an 89-year-old man in Negeri Sembilan with stomach cancer; and a 53-year-old non-Malaysian woman in Sabah with diabetes.

    One of yesterday’s fatalities was reported as being 130 years old at death. His family told a national newspaper, Harian Metro, that yes, they did have his personal papers to prove it. The Health Ministry retweeted the story today to show that they had not misreported his age.

  10. 10.

    NeenerNeener

    Monroe County, NY yesterday: 515 new COVID cases, 341 people in the hospital, 62 people now in the ICU, still at 317 reported deaths.

    What the hell were all these people doing 2 weeks ago? Halloween and the election were 3 weeks ago. I hate to see what this will be 2 weeks from now, after they’ve infected everybody they were with at Thanksgiving.

  11. 11.

    Amir Khalid

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I suppose people getting medical attention for hearing problems they were previously unaware of is a good thing. Another refutation of the anti-maskers.

  12. 12.

    gkoutnik

    Spent some time last night talking with four other pretty smart people about the question:  “What are the conditions under which I’ll take off my mask and return to “normal,” hugging and shaking hands and doing things in big rooms full of other people?  I’m 70 and have hypertension, controlled by meds.  General consensus:

    • Both parts of the vaccination plus two weeks
    • Herd immunity “proclaimed” (will that even happen?)
    • Antibody test to make sure the vaccine is operating
    • Fauci says it’s OK

    This is just a first pass by folks who aren’t health professionals.  If it were just me, I’m not sure that would be enough.  More to come, in many living rooms, as time goes by.  Anyone else having this conversation?

  14. 14.

    terben

    From Australia, which has been managing the epidemic reasonably well, comes this statistic:

    DAYS SINCE LAST DEATH with (TOTAL DEATHS)

    • Victoria                                         32   (819)
    • New South Wales                       70     (53)
    • Western Australia                    210       (9)
    • Tasmania                                  213      (13)
    • Queensland                              225       (6)
    • Australian Capital Territory   228       (3)
    • South Australia                        231      (4)
    • Northern Territory                    –          (0)

    All but 2 states have now gone 30 weeks without a death. There are currently 68 cases of Covid-19 in the country with 21 patients in hospital. (0 in ICU) There were 8 new cases today, 6 of whom are quarantined returnees.

  15. 15.

    Mary G

    California is a fucking mess. We had our worst numbers in the last two days here in the OC, beating the July highs by a lot. And that’s with holiday slowdowns in the reporting system for maintenance. I dread next week.

    @NeenerNeener: I don’t know what people were doing two weeks ago either, but it’s costing us dearly.

    My housemate B got home from Guatemala yesterday. The flooding from Hurricanes Eta and Iota took out so much infrastructure he was unable to get to the town where they have property, but he was able to visit his aunt in the hospital. He’s mad at me because his wife and I are insisting that he quarantine for two weeks and he’s sleeping in a tent in the garage. Tough tacos. I didn’t stay home for nine months to take chances. It’s cold at night for here, but when he comes in to shower, etc I retreat into my bedroom with the air purifier and we open windows and turn on fans in the rest of the house so he isn’t the only one shivering.

  16. 16.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Amir Khalid: I probably should but I won’t. A hearing aid would just be one more damned thing I have to maintain and besides, it would make it harder to ignore all the people I don’t like.

  18. 18.

    raven

    @OzarkHillbilly: I stopped wearing mine when this shit started and haven’t been able to see starting back up since you have to wear them all the time for your brain to adjust.

  19. 19.

    WereBear

    @Mary G: He’s mad at me because his wife and I are insisting that he quarantine for two weeks and he’s sleeping in a tent in the garage. Tough tacos. I didn’t stay home for nine months to take chances.

     
    This whole year has been a massive sorting process where we discover just how many people we thought we knew actually live in fantasy and denial.

  21. 21.

    mrmoshpotato

    @WereBear:

    This whole year has been a massive sorting process where we discover just how many people we thought we knew actually live in fantasy and denial. 

    And these past 4 years have shown us who’s really fascist trash.

  24. 24.

    mrmoshpotato

    @satby:

    He’s lucky you all don’t live around here. “Cold” for you guys is practically skinny dipping weather here. 

    LOL! 🥶🌨️

  25. 25.

    Rileys Enabler

    My turn. My son (16) lost his sense of smell Wednesday, got him in for a test Friday and it came back positive last night. I’ll go in today for a test. Other than loss of smell, he’s feeling normal. I have no symptoms but am required by work to get tested if I have a “high risk exposure” (household exposure).

    It’s one thing to read news stories and quite another to internalize that your child has it (he’s ok so far, but my stress levels are now even further through the roof).

    We’ve been careful, but clearly not careful enough. And now my house- which has seemed such a safe haven- all I see now is Covid virus on every surface.

  27. 27.

    AndoChronic

    @gkoutnik: Still sitting on tickets for two “rescheduled” shows here in Minneapolis; Golden Smog @ 1st. Ave. and Marty Stuart @ Ordway. Don’t know how I feel about attending if they’re still on the books for 2021. There has been discussion about showing proof of vaccination for ticket purchases going forward, at least through Ticket Master. The Rolling Stones and Black Crowes were gracious enough to refund my tickets in full though. Debating reschuled Elton John for 2022. Still… Sketchy about going to a show even with vaccination, but ‘oh so jonesing.

  28. 28.

    Manxome Bromide

    @Mary G: Not just the OC. Santa Clara County up in Silicon Valley has also imposed restrictions over the normal state levels, and we are breaking records daily, in a bad way.

    This is actually our third wave, since we’d managed to get on the other side of the curves around March and July. The positivity rate in March was so high though that it’s hard to tell if this wave is really worse than that one, or if this is the one that we can see… at the very least, the new restrictions do not include a formal requirement to shelter in place, so our restrictions are still lower than they were in March. I guess we’ll see soon enough.

  32. 32.

    Scout211

    @Rileys Enabler:

    Oh, I’m so sorry to hear about your son.  Good luck with your test today.  I think we all try to stay safe but this is a very fierce virus that sometimes slips in when we least expect it.  Take care of yourself and your family.

  33. 33.

    Scout211

    RE: Hearing loss and masks

    My husband has worn hearing aids for years and wearing masks makes hearing and comprehending others nearly impossible sometimes.  Comprehension is always a difficult thing for people with a hearing loss and masks make it so much more difficult.  Luckily, we are both retired so I can go with him to most of the places where he would need to  communicate with others.  I am now his hearing translator.  Doctor’s offices often want me to wait outside but we insist that he needs me to hear and comprehend the doctor.  So far they have been accepting of that.

    The other thing that makes it complicating is the logistics of mask ear loops around ears that have tiny little wires around them connected to the hearing aids.  He has already had the experience several times when a hearing aid went flying off as he tried to remove the mask.  Luckily, it was in the car and we did eventually find them each time.  It’s hard for him to remember to look in the mirror each and every time he puts on or takes off the mask.  I made him masks with loops that go around his whole head but those kind of masks did not work for him.

  34. 34.

    WaterGirl

    @Rileys Enabler:  I’m so sorry this is hitting so close to home and family.

    We’ve been careful, but clearly not careful enough. And now my house- which has seemed such a safe haven- all I see now is Covid virus on every surface.

    I completely understand your reaction.  Hopefully you can stay COVID-negative and your son can get through as easily as possible.

  35. 35.

    StringOnAStick

    I have of a level of hearing loss where I benefit from hearing aides but they are expensive and annoying, and if you swear on them or get them wet the repairs run well into hundreds of dollars.  When I was a dental hygienist I wore them because it was often hard to understand the dentists in their masks, and if I wasn’t careful the loops of my mask sent them flying when I took my mask off.  This made the little plastic strip that helps hold the speaker in your ear break off, and since it’s part of the speaker my choice was to pay $500 for each new speaker! I used them until then and got my full 8 years of life out of them, but I have not replaced them.  I’m retired and they are way too expensive.

    I met an older woman from Wales and not only did her national health insurance but her hearing aides, it also regularly sends her batteries.  The reasoning is that untreated hearing loss is linked to an increase in dementia, and hearing aides are cheaper than long term care.  Here that logic is used in targeted ads to scare seniors into buying aides that are much more expensive here than in other western countries.  Free market wins over health and safety once again

  36. 36.

    Scout211

    @StringOnAStick:

    Agree.  It is just shameful that Medicare does not cover hearing aids.  Shameful.

    My husband was able to get his current hearing aids with his insurance from his university teaching job prior to retiring.  He has been keeping his fingers crossed that they will last a bit longer.

    Costco does sell the batteries for his hearing aids, so that helps.

    I hear that the VA will cover hearing aids and he is VA eligible, so if and when he needs new ones, he will consider the VA (if they still offer that benefit).

    Medicare and VA services are so expensive!  Just ask any Republican in Washington.   :(

  37. 37.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @WereBear: This whole year has been a massive sorting process where we discover just how many people we thought we knew actually live in fantasy and denial.

    Denial is not just a river in Egypt. Or a mountain in Dyslaska.

    And my good friend has now officially moved inside the Fanta Se city limits, so there’s one at least…

  38. 38.

    KenK

    @gkoutnik:  @#12 I’m on the cusp of 70 with, what I consider 3 “issues”; med-controlled hypertension, A+ blood and CTCL. My minimum “event” would be to be vaccinated. Even with that, going full bore crowds is out of the question. Smaller events, particularly outdoors, probably.

  39. 39.

    Ruckus

    @NeenerNeener: 
    Isn’t it about 2 weeks from infection to illness and another week or so to death = 3 weeks from infection to death. Much longer to reasonable recovery.
    It’s why quarantine for 2 weeks.
    And a question I haven’t heard is someone still infectious after they have recovered from this? The dead are treated like they are.

  40. 40.

    Ruckus

    @Scout211:

    As I partake in VA healthcare I’ve found out that it is the largest healthcare provider in the country. But I doubt that it is the most costly per person as they do everything they can to cut costs without cutting care. This disease has put massive kinks in their ability to cut costs.

    On the issue of hearing, I’m seemingly lucky at my age to still have good hearing, even if I have constant tinnitus in one ear and a 20% loss on that side. But I have over the decades protected my hearing whatever and however it takes, as most of the elders in my extended family had hearing issues. And because of that I saw the pitfalls of not protecting your hearing. And of course that’s not the only way one can lose their hearing. That 20% loss on one side is a disease, with no known cause, that far more people know of from first hand knowledge or contact than I would ever have imagined. I will probably need a hearing aid at some point due to this.

  41. 41.

    Chris T.

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Hearing specialists across the U.S. are seeing an uptick in visits from people who only realized how much they relied on lip reading and facial expressions when people started wearing masks.

    raises hand…

    For my own part, I have always relied on lip-reading. I had very good hearing, and still have pretty good hearing, but I have never had good selectivity. Some people—most people, I think, really—can listen to a jumble of different conversations and pick one out. I have never had that ability.

  42. 42.

    Chris T.

    @WereBear: It is easy to tell if someone is smiling from their eyes, but apparently this is a learned skill.

    More importantly, most faked smiles don’t engage the eyes correctly.

    This article claims that in tests, about 60% of people identify real vs fake ones correctly.

  43. 43.

    The Fat White Duchess

    @Chris T.: Most people who have had Botox around the eyes can’t smile with their eyes any more. And something that fascinates me: they also can’t perceive others’ smiles correctly. (According to Steven Porges, a neuroscientist whose work I try to follow.)

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