Latest from AXIOS and SCMP on 10 March

A quick COVID-19 Beijing update. International media now report a lot.
Just a few edited news flashes.

Global panic over the coronavirus

• Italy is entering a nationwide lockdown, all travelers to Israel are being placed in quarantine, Spain is closing schools and several countries are further tightening their borders.
• Italy’s nationwide quarantine policy means all public gatherings are banned at least through April 3. People across the country are not to leave their homes unless necessary, and travel will only be allowed for urgent reasons. Italy’s response to the Covid-19 appears to mirror China’s lockdown of cities across the country, but the sharp differences in the two countries’ government systems mean the restrictions in place will be nowhere near as extensive.
• Israel went further than any country to date in restricting its contact with the outside world by declaring that anyone arriving in the country will have to spend at least two weeks in quarantine.
• Saudi Arabia and Russia helped set off what became one of the worst days in the history of U.S. stock markets when they diverged in their responses to a sharp fall in global oil prices.
• There are growing fears of a global recession. Some countries are likely already there.
• French Culture Minister Franck Riester became the latest high-ranking politician to test positive for the virus.
• Portugal’s president tested negative but will still self-quarantine after a classmate of students he met with tested positive.
• The rate of cases reported in China continues to decline significantly.
• Concerns remain that Iran’s outbreak has been massively underreported.
• The United States’ mixed messaging over the coronavirus continued as a top health official warned that “many people” would be exposed to the coronavirus over the next two years while Genius Trump persisted with downplaying the significance of widespread transmission in the country. The crossed wires within the Trump administration stood in contrast to the WHO assertion that there was now a “real risk” of a global pandemic because of the virus.

Panic buying of toilet paper

Totally crazy and totally irrational. Did not see this happening in Beijing. I had to google it to try to understand the buying frenzy. OK, it IS totally irrational. Read this:
Dr. Dimitrios Tsivrikos: expert in consumer and behavioural science at the University College London:
He explained the difference between disaster panic and general panic, with toilet paper becoming a symbol of the latter.

“Disaster panic is normally for something you have more information on, such as a natural disaster. You know it is going to happen and you usually know it will last a couple days and you can prepare by being somewhat rational with what you buy.
But in public health issues we have no idea about the time or intensity and we get messages on a daily basis that we should go into panic mode that we buy into more than we need to. It’s our only tool of control. Because toilet paper has a longer shelf-life than many food items, is prominently featured in aisles and is big in size, we are psychologically drawn to purchasing it in times of crisis. The bigger they are, the more important we think they are.
If we had an international sign for panic it would be a traffic warning sign with a toilet paper roll in the middle.”

Forget your trip to Thailand

I already was expecting this so I made no plans for my Thailand escape. I am right…
Coronavirus: Thailand asks visitors from outbreak ‘danger zones’ to prove they’re not infected.
9 March 2020 SCMP
The new rule includes a 14-day quarantine period and applies to travellers from mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea, Iran and Italy.
Thailand’s aviation regulator has instructed airlines to ask passengers coming from high-risk areas for health certificates to establish that they are free of the new coronavirus.
Travellers who cannot provide such documentation should be prevented from boarding flights to the Southeast Asian nation, according to a Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand notice posted Monday. Carriers are liable for treatment costs if they fly in people who become sick with the Covid-19 disease caused by the virus, the notice said.
The new framework applies to mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea, Iran and Italy, all of which Thailand has designated danger zones for infection, as it steps up efforts against the outbreak that has infected 50 people in the country so far.
The Tourism Authority of Thailand, a government agency, wrote on Facebook on Monday that travellers coming from the six danger zones will be quarantined for 14 days, adding that more details will be announced soon.
“We advise all travellers to consider carefully whether they still want to pursue their journey,” the authority said.

How to stay safe

This new study is indeed alarming. Take note!
9 March 2020
Stephen Chen SCMP
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3074351/coronavirus-can-travel-twice-far-official-safe-distance-and-stay

Coronavirus can travel twice as far as official ‘safe distance’ and stay in air for 30 minutes, Chinese study finds. See excerpts:
Authorities advise people to stay 1-2 metres apart, but researchers found that a bus passenger infected fellow travellers sitting 4.5 metres away.
The scientists behind the research said their investigation also highlighted the importance of wearing face masks because of the length of time it can linger.
Researchers said the case highlighted the importance of wearing masks on public transport.
The coronavirus that causes Covid-19 can linger in the air for at least 30 minutes and travel up to 4.5 metres – further than the “safe distance” advised by health authorities around the world, according to a study by a team of Chinese government epidemiologists.
The researchers also found that it can last for days on a surface where respiratory droplets land, raising the risk of transmission if unsuspecting people touch it and then rub their face.
The length of time it lasts on the surface depends on factors such as temperature and the type of surface, for example at around 37C, it can survive for two to three days on glass, fabric, metal, plastic or paper.
These findings, from a group of official researchers from Hunan province investigating a cluster case, challenge the advice from health authorities around the world that people should remain apart at a “safe distance” of one to two metres.

European Chamber

As received on 10 March 2020:
COVID-19 Beijing Policy Updates
The Beijing Municipality announced on 3rd March during its daily press conference on the outbreak that people travelling to China from South Korea, Japan, Iran, Italy, and “other severely affected countries” are now required to conduct a 14-day quarantine upon arrival. See the pdf:

200303 BJgovnmt

Basically nothing new, as I reported. earlier. However as I noted, many compounds or health officials ignore this and mandate quarantine anyway.

Good insights for COVID-19

See this site with a lot of valuable insights:
https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus
Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) by Max Roser and Hannah Ritchie

Finally understood the following:
“The disease is called coronavirus disease. It is abbreviated as COVID-19. The virus is called severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 and it is abbreviated as SARS-CoV-2. In the same statement the WHO also explains that they themselves also refer to the virus as “the virus responsible for COVID-19” or “the COVID-19 virus” when communicating with the public.”

It also addresses what was in the previous post about the article in Belgium talking about “Exponential growth leads to large numbers fast”.