Category: Science

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Monday 7:30 PM Update: 73,335 Confirmed Cases and 1,873 Deaths; 300+ American Diamond Princess Cruise Passengers Land At Lackland AFB Early This Morning with 14 More COVID-19 Newly Infected Patients Who Will Be Quarantined Again, Raising U.S. Confirmed Cases to 29.

“During the evacuation process, after Diamond Princess passengers had disembarked the ship and initiated transport to the airport, U.S. officials received notice that 14 passengers, who had been tested 2-3 days earlier, had tested positive for COVID-19.” 

— U. S. State Department and Department of Health and Human Services,  Joint Statement about 14 new positive COVID-19 cases from cruise ship now in United States.

“It’s really daunting to control a situation like this, now that people have gone all over the world.”

— Peter Rabinowitz, M. D., Co-Director of the MetaCenter for Pandemic Preparedness and Global Health Security at University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, after more than 1,000 passengers released on February 13, 2020, from Westerdam cruise ship in Cambodia and one American woman tested positive for COVID-19 coronavirus after arriving at Kuala Lumpur Airport.

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Feb. 11 Update 4 PM Mtn – Wuhan Coronavirus Infections — 28 Countries: 1,107 Deaths, 43,101 cases; U.S. Still At 12 Confirmed in 5 States.

UPDATE:  February 11, 2020 – World Health Organization and CDC report: 28 countries, 1,107 Deaths, 43,101 Cases

  • Deaths and cases: 108 people in mainland China died on Monday, the biggest single-day death toll yet. 2,478 new cases were identified in mainland China, bringing the number there to 42,708. As of Tuesday, 43,101 people were infected worldwide.
  • Heads roll in Hubei: Two senior health officials in the Chinese province at the epicenter of the outbreak were fired on Tuesday, state media reported.
  • Pipe fears: A Hong Kong apartment building was partially evacuated over concerns that the virus may have been transmitted through the piping system.
  • Cruise ship crisis: 135 cases have been confirmed on a ship quarantined in Japan. Another ship carrying more than 2,000 people is still searching for a port after being denied entry to at least four ports.
  • Totals have doubled in one week ago over totals on Feb. 6, 2020:  28 countries; 28,018 cases and 563 deaths.

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Feb. 4th 11:30 AM Mtn UPDATE – 427 Deaths and 20,707 Confirmed Cases in 28 Countries. 11 Cases in USA. Hong Kong Reports 1st Death Amid Calls to Shut Down Border. Hyundai Suspending Car Production in So. Korea.

— In U.S. A., 3 new coronavirus cases confirmed in California and 1 in Massachusetts, in addition to previous 7 in California, Washington and Illinois, bringing total to date to 11 confirmed Wuhan coronavirus cases.  3  ill patients now at NYC hospitals might have the coronavirus since all had recently visited mainland China.

— The U. S. has issued the highest  “Level 4” travel advisory to not travel to China at all.

—  U.S. citizens, permanent residents and immediate family, who have visited China’s Hubei province where Wuhan is the capital, must now undergo a mandatory two-week quarantine.

—  W. H. O. reports 27 cases of person-to-person coronavirus have spread in 9 countries beyond China.

U. K.'s Sky News image on February 4, 2020, of China crew spraying streets and sidewalks with virus-killing chemicals in urgent effort to stop rapidly spreading Wuhan coronavirus as more than 20,000 cases and 427 deaths confirmed.
U. K.’s Sky News image on February 4, 2020, of China crew spraying streets and sidewalks with virus-killing chemicals in urgent effort to stop rapidly spreading Wuhan coronavirus as more than 20,000 cases and 427 deaths confirmed — with 2 deaths for the first time outside China in Hong Kong and Philippines.

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Friday 8:45 PM Update – 7th Case in U.S.; Current Death Toll Now 259 and Confirmed Cases 11,791. Many Airlines Have Suspended All Flights to China. Russia Closed Down Border to China As W.H.O. Declares Wuhan Coronavirus “Global Public Health Emergency.”

“CDC today confirmed another infection with 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in the United States that was detected in California. The patient recently returned from Wuhan, China, where an outbreak of respiratory illness caused by this novel coronavirus has been ongoing since December 2019. This brings the total of number of 2019-nCoV cases in the United States to seven:”  3 in California; 2 in Illinois; 1 Arizona; 1 Washington

“Any US citizen returning to the United States, who has been in China’s Hubei province in the previous 14 days,  will be subject to up to 14 days of mandatory quarantine to ensure they’re provided proper medical care and health screening.”

— Alex Azar, Secretary of Health and Human Services, January 31, 2020

“This W.H.O. action is a vote of no confidence (in China).”

— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, M. D., Director-General, World Health Organization, January 30, 2020

“I consider myself a veteran in battles such as bird flu, SARS and other outbreaks. But with this Wuhan pneumonia, I feel extremely powerless.”

— Guan Yi, M. D., SARS expert, Hong Kong, China, January 24, 2020

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Update: Mecca, Saudi Arabia — “Sky Triangles” Are Cell Phone Optical Artifacts.

“Those triangles in the sky shocked me! And after I sent the pictures to my brother in Manchester, he texted back, ‘That’s really weird!’”

— Imran Choudhry, U. K. resident about two photos he took in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, where sky had strange pattern of pale green triangles

“What we’re looking at is actually very bright lights on the ground being reflected between the camera’s lens elements … the lights in the sky are an inverted mirror image of lights on the ground, and they’re more easily visible against the dark background.”

— Professional photo analyst, San Francisco, California

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