Let’s just quote some of today’s stories, shall we?
COVID-19 resurges in reopened countries; Wuhan sees first cluster in a month
The Chinese city of Wuhan—where the pandemic began last December—saw its first cluster of cases in at least a month. The city began reopening in early April.
The cluster was just six cases: an 89-year-old symptomatic man and five asymptomatic cases. All of the infected lived in the same residential community. However, it was enough to spook government officials.
NPR’s Emily Feng reported from Beijing that “The rise of such hard-to-detect asymptomatic cases has alarmed public health authorities in China, who have ramped up contact tracing and testing efforts.”
China state media announced Tuesday that it has ordered all residents of Wuhan—roughly 11 million persons—to be tested within the next 10 days.
Fauci says US reopening could trigger outbreak ‘you might not be able to control’
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/12/fauci-testimony-coronavirus-reopening-deaths-hearing
Dr Anthony Fauci, the government’s top public health expert, warned in Senate testimony on Tuesday that the official coronavirus death toll in the US is an undercount, and that “the consequences could be really serious” if America relaxes safeguards against Covid-19 too abruptly.
“My concern it that we will start to see little spikes that will turn into outbreaks,” Fauci said.
Fauci appeared before the Senate as Donald Trump declared that the US had “prevailed” in the struggle to stand up its testing program, and encouraged businesses and schools to reopen.
Fauci warned against reopening the country before local benchmarks, including robust testing and contact tracing, had been put in place. In most areas in the US, testing for asymptomatic people is rare, and contact tracing is extremely limited.
Global report: Covid-19 cases rise in Germany as Wuhan reports first infection in weeks
New coronavirus infections rose again in Germany at the end of last week, a few days after leaders loosened social restrictions, while the Chinese city of Wuhan announced it had detected its first case in weeks, helping to push the global total past 4m on Sunday.
France, which also plans to begin easing its tough seven-week lockdown from Monday, announced the discovery of a cluster of at least nine cases linked to a funeral in Dordogne in the south-west of the country.
South Korea also warned of a resurgence of Covid-19 on Sunday as infections rebounded to a one-month high as restrictions were starting to be eased.
“It’s not over until it’s over,” the president, Moon Jae-in, said as he cautioned about a potential second wave of the virus later in the year.
The Korea Centres for Disease Control and Prevention reported 34 new infections, the highest since 9 April, after a small outbreak emerged around a number of nightclubs. The authorities promptly closed all night spots around the capital temporarily.
‘It isn’t over’: South Korea records 34 new Covid-19 cases, the highest in a month
South Korea has reported 34 new coronavirus cases, the highest daily number in a month, after a small outbreak emerged around a slew of nightclubs that a confirmed patient had visited.
Of the new cases announced on Sunday, 26 were domestically transmitted infections and eight were imported cases, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said.
The total was the highest since 9 April. After battling the first major epidemic outside China, South Korea posted zero or very few domestic cases over the past 10 days, with the daily tally hovering around 10 or less in recent weeks.
The resurgence followed a small but growing coronavirus outbreak centred around a handful of Seoul nightclubs, which a man in his late 20s had visited before testing positive for the virus.
At least 15 people were traced to that man as of Friday, and 14 of the 26 cases were reported from Seoul on Sunday, although the KCDC did not specify how many were linked.
“If Seoul falls, the country falls”: 8,500 Korean police are moving to quash a new Covid-19 cluster
https://qz.com/1855878/8000-police-in-south-korea-mobilized-to-quash-itaewon-covid-19-cluster/
South Korea’s national police agency has deployed some 8,500 officers (link in Korean) nationwide, in a race against time to identify people who visited nightlife venues in Seoul after the emergence of a cluster of Covid-19 cases linked to a man who went clubbing there. In a sign of how urgent the situation is, Seoul mayor Park Won-soon issued a stark warning yesterday: “If Seoul falls, the country falls.”
The number of cases traced to bars and clubs in the capital’s Itaewon district, in the vicinity of a large US military base, has swelled to 101 today, according to the Seoul metropolitan government—nearly double the count of 54 yesterday. The Itaewon cluster is now the largest in the country, surpassing the 97 cases connected with a call center in Seoul in March.
The latest cluster first emerged after it transpired that a 29-year-old man, who tested positive for the coronavirus on May 6, had gone partying at three different clubs in Itaewon the evening of May 1 and into the early hours of the next day.
Radarwitch
We had 7 cases in the past 24 hours here. Friday most of the restrictions come off. It’s also a holiday weekend. By the end of the month our numbers will probably be high again. We’ll see.
Apparently people refuse to understand how this works. Or they refuse to learn.
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