【無了期唔知幾時完嘅武漢肺炎】國際疫情討論區09

good count

8:26 HKT 26 Dec, 2020

Coronavirus Cases: 80,191,531
Deaths: 1,756,884
Recovered: 56,457,794

Surpass 80 millions cases!

Book住14日 新例21天 外傭訂唔切房焗瞓機場

港府早前落實英國抵港人士需進行強制檢疫21天，前晚深夜「急補鑊」，要求昨凌晨起所有曾到中國以外地區逗留的抵港人士，不論經機場或陸路口岸抵港，需在指定酒店強制檢疫21天。不過，新措施造成混亂，有外傭公司僱主指，其兩名印傭昨早到港，但預訂的酒店房間已經額滿，未能由14天延長至21天，但當局要求他出示合資格的21天酒店預訂通知書，才可為兩名已在機場的外傭進行檢測，令外傭滯留機場，形容現時「兩頭唔到岸」，深感無奈。有僱傭中介估計約有1,000名外傭陸續抵港，需作臨時酒店延長預約安排。

外傭公司僱主吳先生向本報透露，其兩名外傭乘搭CX796由印尼抵港，昨早抵達香港國際機場，但由於兩名外傭沒有合資格酒店21日預訂通知書，衞生署職員不肯為她們進行病毒檢測，亦不讓她們離開。

未來數天續有千名外傭到港

吳先生表示，早前替兩名外傭預訂的土瓜灣奧斯酒店，作強制檢疫14天，但港府昨凌晨實施新措施，當時外傭已乘飛機前往香港，昨早打算再向酒店申請延長預訂多7天，但酒店回覆指預訂額滿，未能提供延長服務。吳形容，現時基本上所有指定酒店的房額已滿，根本訂不到21天的房間，「畀港府玩死」，目前兩名外傭滯留機場，仍未想到下一步的部署，對此感到憤怒。

另有從美國抵港的人士表示，打算回港慶祝聖誕節，當下機才知悉強制檢疫時間延長至21日，要立即聯絡酒店延長訂房日期，他在機場等待約3小時才獲酒店確認預訂，批評措施來得突然，感到十分麻煩。

香港僱傭代理協會主席張結民估計，預計未來數天陸續有約1,000名外傭抵港，對於當局昨突然推出21天強制檢疫的政策感到「麻煩」，業界正跟當局商討相關問題，要求增加額外指定酒店，提供強制檢疫的房間。

法國出現首宗涉變種新型冠狀病毒確診個案

法國衛生部門證實，發現首宗在英國出現的變種新型冠狀病毒確診個案。 當局表示，該名病人在當地上周六由倫敦返到法國，並在周一的醫院病毒檢測中呈陽性，目前正自我隔離，情況穩定，並無病徵。當局將會對多個新型冠狀病毒檢測的陽性個案進行基因排序，以確定病例是否與變種病毒有關。 多國相繼發現在英國出現的變種病毒，最新的是愛爾蘭和日本，另外德國、南非、尼日利亞、新加坡都有變種病毒個案。馬來西亞未發現相關個案，但就出現另一種變種病毒株，佔國內第三波疫情八成半病例，而南非、澳洲、荷蘭亦發現這種病毒株。

lm

The dark winter that American officials have warned about has arrived in Southern California.

At Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital, carols sung by members of the Los Angeles Opera have been replaced with a video by a street choir from Skid Row. So many patients are streaming into the hospital that gurneys have been placed in the gift shop, and the entire lobby is now a space to treat patients. The waiting room is a tent outside.

Health care workers at Providence St. Mary Medical Center are getting their first shots of a coronavirus vaccine to the sound of Christmas music. Yet the moment the needle leaves their arms, there is the next “code blue,” or the next FaceTime goodbye to arrange between a dying patient and a grieving family.

“Every day is scary,” said Lisa Thompson, an intensive care nurse at the hospital. “We can’t even keep up with the amount of patients coming into the hospital.”

In increasingly urgent tones this week, health officials and political leaders in Southern California have called on people to stay home for the holidays, desperately hoping to forestall another surge in infections, on top of the current crisis that came after Thanksgiving.

But so far very little has slowed the spread of the virus in the state, which became the first to reach two million recorded virus cases.

In Los Angeles County, a vast region whose population is roughly the size of Michigan’s, there are about 6,500 people hospitalized with Covid-19, a fourfold increase over the last month. The number of patients in intensive care units is close to 1,300, double what it was a month ago.

The county on Thursday reported 148 new deaths, the equivalent of about one every 10 minutes and its highest total during the pandemic, according to a New York Times database. Nearly every hospital has surged past its capacity.

But the availability of beds is not the most urgent concern. With so many employees falling sick or taking leave, hospitals are struggling to find enough workers.

韓國+1,132 Confirmed,+20 deaths,+484 recovered
Total cases:55,902
Total deaths:793
Total recovered:38,532

Local:
首爾+457
京畿道+250
忠清南道+61
仁川+55
忠清北道+38
全羅北道+37
江原道+35
慶尚北道+33
光州+27
釜山+26
濟州+24
慶尚南道+22
大邱+13
大田+11
蔚山+8
全羅南道+6
世宗市+1

Nearly 330,000 Americans have died in the coronavirus pandemic as new cases explode across the nation — a grim human toll that can feel lost in the numbers.

But a haunting photo showing a masked nurse caressing the face of an elderly man in a hospital bed with her blue-gloved hand has gone viral — because the patient, Jose Garcia, was the nurse’s father.

Mr. Garcia, 68, a longtime farmworker in New Mexico, died on Dec. 15. The cause was complications of Covid-19, said the daughter who tended him, Carolina Garcia, one of his nine children.

As many Americans are winding down for the holidays, an explosion of coronavirus cases and deaths across the nation is hitting with perilous force, particularly in the South, which avoided much of the fall surge.

Six Southern states have seen sustained case increases in the last week: Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Florida and Texas.

Tennessee reported the country’s most cases per 100,000 people on average over the last seven days, and Alabama set a single-day death record for the state on Wednesday, with 135, according to a New York Times database. In Florida, a virus surge in the past week means cases could soon surpass the state’s summer peak.

These increases are not just indicative of more testing. Florida’s more than 20 percent rise in cases over the last two weeks matches the growth in hospitalizations, although far fewer residents are hospitalized now than in the summer. In Texas, which has also had an upswing of more than 20 percent over the same time period, Dallas County has added more than 15,000 cases in the last week, a record.

A somber holiday season comes as the national death toll surpassed 326,000 on Thursday, more than any other country. More than 3,400 deaths were reported on Thursday, the second-highest daily total of the pandemic.

In Tennessee, home to six of the nation’s 20 metropolitan areas with the most recent cases per capita, frontline medical workers say hospitals are overwhelmed with virus patients.

Dr. Jason Martin, a critical care specialist outside Nashville, said the intensive care unit where he works has been at or near capacity for weeks, an unsustainable level compounded by lax state public health restrictions. Although Gov. Bill Lee recently placed some limitations on indoor public gatherings, he has refused to issue a statewide mask mandate. That has left many rural counties, where officials have resisted imposing mask requirements, more vulnerable to the virus.

But Dr. Martin said his patients have little doubt about the seriousness of the coronavirus. “The people who come in, they believe, by the time they’ve gotten to me,” he said. Many of his patients have expressed regret about their decisions, like going to a relative’s funeral or socializing with people who showed no symptoms.

“What makes this so maddening is that we know how to stop it,” Dr. Martin said, “and we choose not to.”

Virus mutate often. Only when the new strain of the virus behave diifferently (in this case, spread faster), we will take notice.

3,841 new cases (new national record) and 55 new deaths in Japan

Keep worsening.

今增59宗確診 鯉魚門邨鯉生樓再有1人染疫全幢須強檢

新冠肺炎疫情持續，衞生防護中心傳染病處流行病學科首席醫生(流行病學)歐家榮表示，今日(26日)新增59宗確診個案，年齡介乎7至91歲，涉及27男32女，當中有6宗為輸入病例，其餘53宗屬本地個案，其中26宗個案源頭不明，餘下27宗為早前群組相關病例，本港累計個案有8,541宗。

歐表示，鯉魚門邨鯉生樓再有1個單位出現確診者，現時大廈共有4個單位出事，涉及6名居民，包括1個單位有3人確診，該3人屬歌舞群組，涉及的4個單位均為不同樓層及不同坐向，大廈居民需要強制檢測。

據了解，聯合醫院懷安科紓緩病房日前繼有3名病人確診後，今再有多人確診，香港大學李嘉誠醫學院微生物學系講座教授袁國勇今午將到基督教聯合醫院視察。

新增11食肆上疫榜

新冠肺炎疫情持續，本港昨錄得57宗確診個案。衞生防護中心昨晚(25日)更新確診者住宅及行蹤表，再多11間食肆上疫榜。另有數名患者居於元州邨元盛樓、深水埗德寶大廈及何文田站私人屋苑天鑄5座。

新增的11間食肆包括沙田美林商場及小西灣廣場的兩間翠河餐廳、油塘油麗商場的大家樂、元朗+WOO嘉湖1期的大快活、寶林新都城中心煌宴酒家及永興燒臘粉麵茶餐廳等。

住宅方面，深水埗區出現較多個案，有4人居於元州邨元盛樓，他們與之前一宗感染源頭不明個案有關。深水埗德寶大廈亦有3名確診者，全數與本地個案有關；觀塘花園大廈玉蓮臺2座亦新增1人確診。

何文田私人屋苑天鑄5座有兩人確診，分別為一名40歲男子及70歲老翁，後者是無源頭的本地個案患者。

日本準備鎖國

I have already emailed this news to all my friends and relatives!

All foreigners cannot enter into Japan!

Machine translation of the news:

The government on Thursday announced the suspension of new entry for foreigners from all over the world. It responds to outbreaks of the new coronavirus variant, which is very infectious in the UK and elsery, and has been detected in Japan as well as in airport quarantine and in Tokyo. Stricter water's-water measures and prevent infections from spreading in the country.

28 to the end of January 2021. Aling it is possible for Japanese and foreigners living in Japan to return home or re-enter Japan, regulations will be tightened, such as not allowing the relaxation of waiting for two weeks after returning to Japan, which is exempt under certain conditions.

Since October, the government has allowed new arrivals from various countries for those staying in Japan for more than three months, provided they wait two weeks after entering Japan. In response to the spread of the mutant species, the UK was removed from the UK on The 24th and South Africa on the 26th. Similar measures will be spread to all countries and regions from August 28.

The relaxation of waiting after entry for Japanese who returned or re-entered japan from foreign countries was also suspended for the UK from 24th and asked to wait. This will also be targeted worldwide from The 28th.

Prior to this, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga held talks with senior officials of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare for about 20 minutes at the prime minister's official residence on Thursday. In response to the first detection of a mutant species in Japan, the response was discussed. We received a report on the current situation from Mr. Hideki Taruma, Undersecretary of Health, Labour and Welfare.

At a press conference on Thursday, the prime minister said he would "swiftly strengthen measures in view of the situation in each country" regarding the response to the mutant species, and indicated that he would consider strengthening measures at the water's end.

On the same day, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare announced that a variant of the new corona had been detected in five men and women who entered the country by air from the UK. Outside of airport quarantine, it was found by Thursday that men who had traveled to the UK had been infected with the variant.

The mutant species has been found not only in the UK but also in Italy, the Netherlands, Denmark and Australia, and has been confirmed for the first time in Germany. It is said that it is up to 70% more likely to be infected than conventional viruses, but the risk of becoming severe remains the same.

27 Dec 2020, 10:35 HKT

Coronavirus Cases: 80,710,866
Deaths: 1,764,374
Recovered: 56,899,258

韓國+970 Confirmed,+15 deaths,+508 recovered
Total cases:56,872
Total deaths:808
Total recovered:39,040

Local:
首爾+359
京畿道+237
仁川+60
忠清南道+55
慶尚南道+44
釜山+40
慶尚北道+32
忠清北道+24
江原道+23
大邱+21
光州+17
大田+8
全羅北道+7
濟州+7
世宗市+6
全羅南道+5
蔚山+1

【本報訊】新冠肺炎爆發初期，市面上「一罩難求」，政府被批評抗疫不力，至年中推出可重用的「銅芯口罩」，雖然曾兩度免費派發給合資格的市民，但劣評如潮，早前有報道指口罩經過清洗後，防菌功能只剩下四成，政府方面更曾親口承認，口罩未必受市民歡迎或接受，就連理應帶頭支持自家出品的特首林鄭月娥也曾「倒自己米」，出席記者會時表示口罩「麻麻哋」。

官員寧戴外科口罩

銅芯口罩一人至少有一個，但查看過往紀錄，就連官員都不肯用。其中林鄭和一眾司局長在5月中出席記者會和立法會會議，均未有佩戴「銅芯抗疫口罩」，只是以外科口罩代替。

特首戴到露出鼻孔

而林鄭在6月中出席行政會議前的例行記者會時，口罩戴得不夠穩固，曾兩度露出鼻孔，期間她更忍不住發言指「今日個口罩麻麻哋，可能洗得多鬆咗啦」，難免令人質疑銅芯口罩的實質效用。

事實上，林鄭佩戴銅芯口罩出現「甩轆」場面不止一次，她9月初出席行會前見記者期間，過程中最少兩次用手調整口罩位置，而右耳亦未能正確穿戴口罩，更着一眾攝影記者「唔好係咁影佢」，並表示「可能個口罩緊得滯」，繼而除下口罩。她雖然一度嘗試戴回口罩但不成功，再詢問一旁人員有否另一個替換，擾攘一會兒後選擇直接除下口罩發言，更指與記者有保持1.5米距離，應該無問題。