I wonder if this pandemic will last long enough to give drive in movie theaters the opportunity to make a comeback. Everybody social distancing from the privacy of their own car.

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

The last reporting period saw the world's total case count passed 40,264,000 and 1,118,000 deaths. :-O

Slovenia has moved into 100th place, Georgia jumped up into 91st, Malaysia crept into 89th, Croatia and Greece both passed South Korea to take up 84th and 85th respectively, Slovakia jumped up into 81st, Myanmar took over 77th, Jordan is now up to 75th, Hungary has jumped up to 70th, Ireland removed Libya from 66th while Lebanon is now in 60th spot as both Honduras and Venezuela passed China to take up 51st and 52nd places respectively.

Oman is now into 41st, Nepal is up to 35th, Poland and Czechia passed Morocco to take up 30th and 31st spots, Belgium passed Canada to take up 27th and pass 200,000 infections as the U.K. became the 12th country to pass 700,000 cases while removing South Africa from 11th place and France leapt over both Mexico and Peru into 8th place.

We have to wait on Spain's numbers to be sure where they land as the top 4 remain static except for India passing 7.5 million cases while the U.S. is fast approaching 8.4 million cases and 225,000 deaths which they will do in this reporting period, but some of us wonder how 1st world developed countries can produce such high numbers when compared to many 3rd world undeveloped countries.

Anyhow we'll find out more tomorrow as the weekend's numbers come in from those lazy countries who don't like working on weekends.

Well Donny is telling everyone that the U.S. is, "turning the corner", but that corner is heading uphill and not downwards and his COVID spreading campaign rallies don't seem to be helping any as case numbers pass 8,456,600 while deaths pass 225,200 as the world's totals pass 40.6 million with over 1,122,700 deaths. :-O

Meanwhile India's numbers are coming down slowly, but Brazil's numbers (even though they look to be coming down) are getting to be a little suspect as reported testing numbers havn't moved in quite a while now.

Spain became the 5th country to pass 1 million cases (but they still can't keep up with their reporting as historic numbers up to 2 weeks old are still being passed through) and Argentina became the 6th while France became the 8th country to pass 900,000 cases.

The U.K.'s numbers just keep on climbing upwards (at their current rate they'll pass Mexico, 10th place, within 10 days) while Wales' 2 week lockdown is being regarded by many as pointless and will have very little effect, but at least Ireland (where numbers are also on the rise) is looking much more sensible with a 6 week lockdown (but even that really should be seen as a bare minimum to gain some effect).

Anyhow I'll jump back down the list.

Slovenia has taken 99th place from Finland while Ireland became the 66th country to pass 50,000 cases, Austria passed Armenia to take up 57th spot as Switzerland put in a huge burst to pass Bahrain into 54th and Honduras moved into 50th place displacing Belarus. Portugal became the 46th country to pass 100,000 cases and knocked Guatemala out of 45th place as Poland took 29th from Romania while Canada became the 28th country to pass 200,000 cases and the Ukraine became the 25th to pass 300,000 with Israel now in their sights as Israel's lockdown is now showing the right results.

But it'll be tomorrow's numbers we'll have to worry about as the last reporting period carried the last of last weekend's numbers for most countries.

One (minor) correction, the lockdown in Wales is 17 days, which, in my opinion is still far too short, I agree with your suggested six weeks as being the minimum functional period. However the two-weeks does nicely cover to impending school holidays so it may have some effect.
Also Manchester appears to be racing blindly into being forced by Whitehall into tier three thanks to their inept mayor.

<Edit to add>
Unless something really strange happens I can see the whole of England being in Tier 3 before too long thanks to all the idiots who won't wear masks and gather together for weddings etc. (just about every major city & large town has had events busted with way over the 15/30 limit)

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Thanks for that correction Rob as all the world news that I watched and the reports I've read here this morning just state 2 weeks.

Cheers.

Thanks for that correction Rob as all the world news that I watched and the reports I've read here this morning just state 2 weeks.

Yes, the headline quote used here is two weeks, too. But Wales (and other places as well, I think) is targeting weekend behaviour by making it Friday to Monday, three weekends in all.

Now this is about our southern mainland state of Victoria.

Melbourne makes world history crushing second wave.

But it took 100 days to recover from its grim mistakes.

Can the world take a few hints and tips from:

Coronavirus in Africa: Five reasons why Covid-19 has been less deadly than elsewhere


That is impressive considering how their health services are so sparse.

Can our despotic poisonous politics, rabid economy, and carelessness culture be moderated to thwart the easy pickings that SARS2 is exploiting??

After all, we do have the magic of sanitizers and The Internet...!?


Stay safe!
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Ouch.

Waging War - Manchester MP's react
Greater Manchester MPs have been reacting to the latest developments.

Wigan MP and shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy said: "In 10 years in Parliament I've never seen anything like this. We were told £22m is for test and trace, not a single extra penny promised to help businesses and minimum-wage workers. The government appears to be waging war on the people of Greater Manchester. I grew up under Thatcher but I've honestly never seen anything like this."

Hazel Grove's Conservative MP William Wragg said: "The sense of failure is overwhelming. I shall avoid political comment until I have heard Matt Hancock's statement in the House of Commons this evening. Leadership is required from everybody. Trust is placed in us all and that is the privilege of public office."

Another Conservative, Chris Green, who represents Bolton West, wrote on Facebook: "The government believes that three weeks of closing pubs and soft-play centres will make a dramatic difference. It hasn't and it won't. I think the health and economic impact will be damaging to our community but we have to do all we can to respect these rules since they have been imposed."

Meanwhile across the pond.

One mask-less man, one big delay
Katty Kay
World News America presenter
Flying from Miami to Atlanta last night to cover the election should have been simple. It wasn’t.

We started off with a two-hour delay. Finally left the gate and taxied out to the runway. Sat there for half an hour. And then learned why. One passenger was refusing to wear his mask. The Delta fly crew made it clear they had a policy - no mask, no travel. But this gentleman wouldn’t put his mask on, nor would he leave the plane.

We taxied back to the gate. The flight crew - heroically good-tempered and patient even though it was 11pm and we were by now over 3 hours late - tried to negotiate with him. They were polite, until one of them got shoved backwards by the man’s equally belligerent partner. At which point, armed Miami airport police boarded the plane as extra persuasion.

Eventually the passenger and his partner left the plane. But they then refused to leave the jetway, which meant the plane still couldn’t push back.

As we finally took off, after midnight, the pilot rather wearily announced that in his 33 years of flying he’d never seen anything like it. A late arrival, a minor disruption - but another unnecessary reminder of the stresses of this pandemic.

This mask madness has to stop.

My niece, a GP, made an interesting comment yesterday evening, that there are very few pneumonia or flu cases so far.

And the Telegraph has this, 'No sign of second wave' as ONS data shows normal level of deaths for time of year

People who would normally be expected to die of flu or pneumonia may instead be dying from Covid-19

There is no sign of a second coronavirus wave, experts have said as new Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures showed that deaths are just 1.5 per cent above the five-year average and tracking on a normal trajectory for the time of year.

Although Covid deaths rose to 438 for the week ending October 9 – an increase of 36 per cent from the previous week, when the figure stood at 321 – overall deaths rose just 143 above the five-year average. There were also 19 fewer overall deaths than in the same week last year.

Experts at Oxford University said the number would have to get to 1,200 deaths above the norm before it would usually be considered "excess" above the expected variation in the data.

Researchers also found there would usually be around 1,600 weekly deaths from flu and pneumonia for the same week. Deaths from coronavirus, flu and pneumonia are currently running at 1,621, suggesting there is virtually no increase in expected respiratory deaths.

The ONS figures also do not factor in the UK's growing and ageing population, which would be expected to increase the number of deaths over time and which are likely to cancel out at least some of the increase.

For example, between 2010 and 2019 the number of deaths for the week ending October 9 rose from 9,281 to 9,973 – about 70 extra deaths a year.

I've been asking myself this question, but not got an answer yet.

Does the Government's action, in refusing to fully fund the full wages of laid-off employees when a hospitality business is forced to close, make it guilty of conspiracy to commit a criminal act, namely failing to comply with minimum wage legislation?

I asked on something similar on the last furlough call last month regarding what happens on 31/10. They did not know, so we expect to get told that on Friday as last day of month is Saturday.
The thing that gets me is the "Job top-up scheme". It is only available if employees work 1/3rd of their normal hours. If they have to do that, why not their full working week?
Regardless of whether or not one works 33.33% or 100% the risk of covid is still present, so...

My niece, a GP, made an interesting comment yesterday evening, that there are very few pneumonia or flu cases so far.
People who would normally be expected to die of flu or pneumonia may instead be dying from Covid-19

That is what has been bugging me throughout all this. Checking through several folders of family tree printouts, the majority of deaths have been down to Bronchopneumonia.
With just a few exceptions all were in the 70-95 age bracket.
Just wondering if the normal flu/pneumonia deaths that have occurred this year been labelled Covid-19 as it has caught many by surprise.

New Zealand will be adding to their count after 11 confirmed cases in hotel quarantine.

New Zealand confirms 11 cases in Christchurch hotel quarantine.

Those numbers will be added to the next reporting period while on the far west coast here W.A. are dealing with the crew of another ship.

More diagnosed with coronavirus on livestock ship in WA.

Those numbers are included this current reporting period.

Cases like this does not help matters.
EEAS put in special measures
I have no faith in them even though I have come across many good members of staff.
From my own & family experiences, they are a fair number who just does not listen to what they are told & often diagnose visually.
In an incident just before Covid hit big time, it was 3 crunchers who alleviated my worries (thanks guys).Pulled chest muscle? No it was BPPV & lasted 10 days.
Scary!
As for the pulled muscle? Naw, just wrenched my arm while attempting to grab a worktop while collapsing.

TBH, thought the % would be higher.

Some 73% of people agreed "it's one rule for them and another for us" when it comes to the pandemic.

At least similar to the cost of living %.

The same proportion were pessimistic about the economy, with 89% expecting the cost of living to go up in the next year.

How are people breaking the rules

The world has put in another massive daily case record of over 437,000 taking the total past 41.4 million while deaths have now passed 1,135,000 with the U.S. leading both daily counts.

Slovenia has passed Senegal into 97th place, Georgia took 90th from the Ivory Coast while Croatia passed Australia into 83rd as Bulgaria passed El Salvador, but Slovakia leapt over both to take up 80th spot, Myanmar took over 76th place from Serbia and Jordan removed Afghanistan from 74th place. Hungary jumped up 2 places and became the 68th country to pass 50,000 cases while Lebanon passed Uzbekistan to claim 59th and Austria took 56th spot from Moldova.

Switzerland put in a massive leap to pass China, Venezuela, Belarus, Honduras and Ethiopia to take up 49th place, Portugal passed Egypt into 44th while the U.A.E. took 39th spot from Kuwait, Nepal jumped past Bolivia for 34th and while Poland became the 30th country to pass 200,000, but Czechia beat them to that mark while also taking 28th place from Canada. The Ukraine slipped past Israel into 24th as Italy did the same to Iraq and into 15th place while both the U.K. (11th) and France (8th) put in 26,600+ day each as they close in on their next targets, but questions must be asked about Brazil as while their numbers look to be better their testing numbers have not moved in over a week now and news reports from there are also not reflecting that huge drop in case numbers (is Jair Bolsonaro's government trying to do another cover up again?).

Anyhow that's enough for this update as another Thorsday beer is calling me. ;-)

Well the world's total case tally has now passed 42 million along with over 1,144,000 deaths and the last reporting period saw a massive 479,312+ cases being reported. :-O

Are we shortly to see a day where 500,000 cases get recorded?

Well the world's total case tally has now passed 42 million along with over 1,144,000 deaths and the last reporting period saw a massive 479,312+ cases being reported. :-O

Are we shortly to see a day where 500,000 cases get recorded?

I see that the US is making its best efforts to ensure its contribution is not lacking, BBC - Coronavirus: US cases reach record high amid new wave of infections