Coronavirus update - NO MORE RESTRICTIONS

[xsnaggle]

NH Wales woman being interviewed by a committee today denied any knowledge of a 5000 tests a day promise saying it was not something she recognised. Nor did she acjnowledge Drakeford saying they intended to increas that to 9000 by mid april.
Also the Director of NH Wales today said he thinks that to begin easing the lockdown and be in a position to control any upsurge we need to be conducting 10,000 test a day. In the last 24 hours, so I heard on the news, there were less than 1,000 carried out, but I cannot find written ref to it.

They can't even seem to agree on their own story let alone do what they should. At this rate what are out chances of ever getting out of lockdown?

[lisvaneblue]

Nearly 20,000 more tests today and I think it was about 500 less new cases. Also, the R is now between 0.5 and 0.9, which is a reduction from three weeks ago, so that's not the maintaining of what we saw yesterday that I expressed concern about.

We are told the we are past the peak in UK, but the figures don't show that. If anything we are at the peak. For the last 4 weeks new daily cases have flattened at around 5,000. In other European countries cases decreased rapidly once the peak had been reached. Unfortunately we are not seeing that in UK.

Death rate, thank goodness, is going down.

Wales seem to be doing OK , but North Wales cases seem to be increasing significantly. This might tie in with its close proximity to the NW of England, which currently seems to be the UK hotbed for new cases.

[adz-a32]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...d-19-ons-finds

[xsnaggle]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...d-19-ons-finds

I jut read something that said it was double, that's nowhere near 4 times.
But what do the expect to be able to do about it?

[islandblue]

NH Wales woman being interviewed by a committee today denied any knowledge of a 5000 tests a day promise saying it was not something she recognised. Nor did she acjnowledge Drakeford saying they intended to increas that to 9000 by mid april.
Also the Director of NH Wales today said he thinks that to begin easing the lockdown and be in a position to control any upsurge we need to be conducting 10,000 test a day. In the last 24 hours, so I heard on the news, there were less than 1,000 carried out, but I cannot find written ref to it.

They can't even seem to agree on their own story let alone do what they should. At this rate what are out chances of ever getting out of lockdown?

God help us if Wales ever becomes totally devolved from the UK with people like this in charge. Think I'd have more confidence in the Marx Brothers if they were still around.

[Rjk]

God help us if Wales ever becomes totally devolved from the UK with people like this in charge. Think I'd have more confidence in the Marx Brothers if they were still around.

Isn't the Westminster government being criticised for the same thing?
What do you propose, joining Ireland?

[Eric the Half a Bee]

God help us if Wales ever becomes totally devolved from the UK with people like this in charge. Think I'd have more confidence in the Marx Brothers if they were still around.

Do you have confidence in the UK government? I don't. Not at all.

[xsnaggle]

Isn't the Westminster government being criticised for the same thing?
What do you propose, joining Ireland?

They're as bad as each other without a doubt. Part of the problem (as is witnessed by defence contracts) is that any purchases have to go through so many beaurocratic processes that its like a minefield, and it takes too long to get anything done. Add to that the fact that they are not used to being in a hurry or being told to do something "Now", and you have a recipe for disaster.

[Eric the Half a Bee]

They're as bad as each other without a doubt.

Agreed.

[surge]

NH Wales woman being interviewed by a committee today denied any knowledge of a 5000 tests a day promise saying it was not something she recognised. Nor did she acjnowledge Drakeford saying they intended to increas that to 9000 by mid april.
Also the Director of NH Wales today said he thinks that to begin easing the lockdown and be in a position to control any upsurge we need to be conducting 10,000 test a day. In the last 24 hours, so I heard on the news, there were less than 1,000 carried out, but I cannot find written ref to it.

They can't even seem to agree on their own story let alone do what they should. At this rate what are out chances of ever getting out of lockdown?

Chief Exec of @PublicHealthW confirms to me on @seneddhealth Committee that they & @WelshGovernment had an understanding from Roche pharmaceuticals to deliver 5000 tests a day in Wales, but that UK Govt & agencies stepped in to take those tests & subsume into general UK testing. - https://twitter.com/RhunapIorwerth/s...25694842572802

Testing does need to increase as part of a wider strategy.

Wider strategy despair when looking at following too: "Almost 80% of respirators in the national pandemic stockpile were out of date when coronavirus hit the UK." https://www.channel4.com/news/reveal...navirus-hit-uk

Responding to the Channel 4 News investigation, a government spokesperson said: “The UK is one of the most prepared countries in the world"...."follow the science" etc. Slogans, slogans, slogans and a real lack of people stepping up. This is not "apparent success" by any stretch.

[islandblue]

Isn't the Westminster government being criticised for the same thing?
What do you propose, joining Ireland?

I take it you mean Northern Ireland and yes I think Arlene Foster inspires more confidence than Drakeford and Co. Everytime I watch a Welsh Assembly press conference I feel embarrassed for Wales.

[xsnaggle]

Testing does need to increase as part of a wider strategy.

Wider strategy despair when looking at following too: "Almost 80% of respirators in the national pandemic stockpile were out of date when coronavirus hit the UK." https://www.channel4.com/news/reveal...navirus-hit-uk

Responding to the Channel 4 News investigation, a government spokesperson said: “The UK is one of the most prepared countries in the world"...."follow the science" etc. Slogans, slogans, slogans and a real lack of people stepping up. This is not "apparent success" by any stretch.

I'm not sure what you're trying to say her surge. The discussion about the Roche deal had been done to daeth and it was weeks ago. also there was never any contract. when aked ot produce a contract the Welsh government couldn't but said it was an understandfing. roche have always denied a binding agreement. But that said, it does not justify the cock up regarding the 5000, then 9000 test promise that was then dropped and which the head of Public health Wales has no denied having any knowledge of. She said she knows nothing about it. Either she is lying or she is totally incompetent and was unaware of that promise made by the leader of the Welsh government on national TV. She has no reason to lie so she must be totally incompetent, which leaves me asking what the people under her are like. The members of the committe were clearly stunned at her denial and she gave it again and again.

It is the welsh government who is responsible for taking care of us and they are failing just like those in Westminster are. They still haven't got anywhere near where they need to be and given their track record on hitting their targets so far how can we have any confidence that they will have the testing capacity in place to relax the lockdown? On the stength of the 900 test by the end of April promise we shjuold be doing 10000 a day now not less tha 1000.

[delmbox]

So still no evidence, as Delm claimed, of Johnson repeatedly stating that was the government policy?

You're right, I was wrong about it being Johnson as opposed to the Government's Chief Scientific Adviser, who was stood next to Johnson on camera most days at the start of this. Now you've won that tiny little point I'm still right that what was said in the Guardian articles was bollocks

[CCFCC3PO]

47, doesn't say if he had underlying health issues.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-52584834

[xsnaggle]

You're right, I was wrong about it being Johnson as opposed to the Government's Chief Scientific Adviser, who was stood next to Johnson on camera most days at the start of this. Now you've won that tiny little point I'm still right that what was said in the Guardian articles was bollocks

so happy thats been sorted out.

[surge]

Economics editor of FT, 07/05/2020:

Update: following the latest official figures from hospitals, a cautious estimate od excess deaths linked to coronavirus up to 7 May is

55,000

Of these 42,700 have happened and are in official data while 12,300 are estimates

(later tweet reduces by 600 due to miscalculation of Scottish data).

https://twitter.com/ChrisGiles_/stat...30677957165056

17/03/2020: Sir Patrick, the government's chief scientific adviser, was asked if the final tally of British deaths could be limited to 20,000 or below. That would, he told MPs, be "a good outcome".

27/04/2020: Boris Johnson: "There will be many people looking now at our apparent success"

[surge]

The Times article reporting that Boris Johnson plans on extending UK lockdown until June: https://twitter.com/hendopolis/statu...03212597903362

How many times (pardon the pun) does it need to be said that each nation wants to work together but ultimate decision is devolved? We know the estimate of R rating is higher in Wales and Scotland compared to England so either a good level of consideration must be given to prolonging the lockdown til that falls sufficiently (i.e. the country furthest behind has strong say in how long lockdown goes on for) or there may start to have greater distinctions between when it's eased.

The media are generally bad at reporting on devolution, as are how statements are made in Westminster when not acting as counter-punch to criticism regarding conservative running of NHS, but now it's about health in a global pandemic and Walesonline are not stating Boris talking about England in headline but instead waiting til paragraph 5 or 6.

[surge]

Senedd sets out how Wales has done things differently: https://twitter.com/SamCoatesSky/sta...432832/photo/1

[Rjk]

I take it you mean Northern Ireland and yes I think Arlene Foster inspires more confidence than Drakeford and Co. Everytime I watch a Welsh Assembly press conference I feel embarrassed for Wales.

Are you being serious?

[CCFCC3PO]

New York death rate could have been as much as 80% lower had they introduced social distancing two weeks earlier.

I wonder if we'll see a similar analysis of data for the UK.

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-w...-weeks-earlier

[the other bob wilson]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...ovid-19-advice

[xsnaggle]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...ovid-19-advice

There is a discrepancy of nearly 50,000 in their figures, the second time at least they have made this basic error in an article. It doesn't exactly give you confidence in the rest of the information does it?

[goats]

New York death rate could have been as much as 80% lower had they introduced social distancing two weeks earlier.

I wonder if we'll see a similar analysis of data for the UK.

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-w...-weeks-earlier

Definitely. A big one was letting 45000 Brits fly off to Europe ski ing the Friday just before the lockdown here I think it was, most of the slopes were then shut the following day so all of them had to find a flight back, chaos everywhere.

[goats]

No real changes in the lockdown then for wales.....

[cyril evans awaydays]

There is a discrepancy of nearly 50,000 in their figures, the second time at least they have made this basic error in an article. It doesn't exactly give you confidence in the rest of the information does it?

Isn't it copied from the Official Gov.UK site though?

https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/#cat...tions&map=rate