A Second Wave

[aggienaut]

Australia

   Currently active cases in Australia: 665. Currently active cornoavirus cases in this (Victoria) state: 645 (which I believe are almost entirely in the city of Melbourne). That's according to this site, though the worldometer site I've been using actually lists 903 current cases, up from 380 in mid June. Most recent 24 hour period lists 107 cases, though thats a weekend day and weekend days are always underreported -- previous weekday was 254, a rate not seen since April.



   I'm not actually very well plugged in to Australian news but I gather the quarantine hotels for people returning from overseas or diagnosed with non-hospitalizing covidia have turned out to be a total scandal -- totally lax enforcement of quarantine, security guards and staff mingling with quarantinees and then going out into the world themselves. At present the statewide state of quarantine remains paused at a mostly-open level, I think the most visible remaining state of non-normal is the bars and nightclubs are still closed. Gatherings of over 10 or having more than 5 out-of-household guests over are not allowed. Informally, people have gone from feeling like this was "over" to being very cautious again. Rather than clamp down on the whole state they're clamping down very heavily on specific Melbourne suburbs where outbreaks are happening. I believe these post-codes are back to "only go out for necessary reasons," but 9 public housing towers are on total lockdown, their residents cannot leave for any reason. The government is providing them food and necessities, they're rent is waived and they're getting a payment from the government. Police and possibly military are enforcing the heavy lockdown. Of course some people are whining about "government oppression" but I think the government needs to do what it can to knock this down and these measures have nothing to do with any wild police state conspiracies.

   See cazzicles comment to this entry which clarifies some things (which I've already changed in the above paragraph) and adds a bit of context about the public housing towers.

   I probably need to deliver honey to some places in Melbourne this week. I think one can't even travel through some of these suburbs so I'm going to have to examine a map. Also, it's fortunate that the masks mom mailed me, after taking nearly two months, finally arrived.


Venezuela


   As you can see from the above graph, Venezuela didn't actually have very many coronavirus patients back when the height of the first wave was hitting everywhere else, but now it's on its first big wave. Everyone in Venezuela quarantined back when the rest of the world did, but it seems to be that people get tired of quarantining after about 40 days -- and they've started to come out and act like its "over" there too. I'm really afraid it's going to hit Venezuela extremely hard. ):
   Eery day I've asked Cristina if they had any corona patients at her hospital. They haven't until last week, but now they do, and they've had their first coronavirus death. She has the usual nose-mouth covering mask but not the higher degree of protective gear you see in hospitals in more developed countries. She thinks she can buy a face-shield though, so I sent her money for that and hope she is able to do so.

***Edit to add, she reports many people are dying of covid in her hospital now ): ): ):


United States

again, the past two days are both weekend, when things are always underreported, in this case making it look like the US is down from a peak when it probably is not. Perhaps i'll update these graphs when Monday data comes out.

   And you're probably familiar with the US situation but for posterity this is the current situation in the US. I need hardly point out that this is very bad, and I think it nearly entirely hangs on Trump's head. Reasonable leadership from the top could have reduced mask-resistance to just a few wingnuts, and led to coordinated state responses and well prepared medical services. As it is, America is now clearly doing just about the worst in the world, worse than many 3rd world countries, and not only Europe but Canada and Mexico have closed their borders to the US. He said the world was laughing at us, he made that literally true when the UN laughed at him; he said he wanted to prevent Mexicans from entering the US, and now Mexico has closed the border to keep Americans out of Mexico. Making America Great Again indeed.

Comments

[cazzicles.livejournal.com]

Ah, I think you’re merging two separate things - 9 public housing towers with approximately 3,000 people have been thrown into “hard lockdown”, meaning they can’t leave for any reason, but everyone else within those affected postcodes announced last week are back to partial lockdown where they have to stay home but are allowed out for those 4 essential reasons (work/education, exercise, grocery shopping, and health).

Morally, it’s a difficult one, because the state government is targeting public housing specifically, and so questions around how vulnerable minorities are being treated come up, but I think it also shines a light on the fact that public housing is so in demand and short supply that these conditions were created in the first place. I hope they’re getting adequate support and compassion in there :(

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Ohh. Yeah I thought those whole postcodes were locked down. Thanks for clarifying.

[nick-101.livejournal.com]

Here's hoping July doesn't become the first tsunami of new cases in the U.S.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

:-[] :-[] :-[]

[weebleswobble]

most people here in the US think its not really so bad. they're out in restaurants and bars now that they're opening. you're lucky if half the people are wearing masks. president isnt taking it seriously, so they arent either. and sadly, i can sympathize to the rest of the world closing their borders to us.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

I really think its about to sock parts of the US every bit as hard as it hit Italy and Spain. It's going to be really scary.

[wpadmirer.livejournal.com]

Florida here is working very hard on being the epicenter of Covid in the USA, though Arizona is in the running. (sigh)

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

I just saw the Florida curve here https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/florida-coronavirus-cases.html and it's pretty scary! Arizona is about as bad!

[wpadmirer.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Florida is really trying to live up to its reputation for stupidity. (sigh)

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

They screwed up big time in Victoria (as I understand it, yes it was the hired security firm blew it big time), the rest of Australia is pretty much the same except for a few idiots trying to cross borders :(

When we went shopping yesterday, there were mass stocks of hand sanitiser and masks (which hardly anyone is wearing, it's just not needed here unless you are vulnerable) in the first three shops I went to, a chemist, a supermarket and a hardware store. No limits. Gives toy an idea.... we haven't had a case in this rather large area for well over a month now.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Yeah it looks like it's mostly contained in every other Australian state. Here it seems to be mostly confined to Melbourne, but my town for example has the vacation or weekend second home of many a melbourner so I'm afraid people will come out here to get away from it all, and bring it with them :-/

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[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

The US is in a lot of trouble with it, no doubt.
My area is OK now, but was hot when it first started.

I like this tracking site: https://aatishb.com/covidtrends/
It lets you look at it a bunch of ways.

[newwaytowrite.livejournal.com]

I am so glad you posted.