Corona virus Covid-19 Lockdown now Spain wide

Corona virus - Covid-19 on the Costa Calida  (updated 16th March)

I am a semi-retired journalist with biomedical education, living on the Mar Menor.

During this week I have written for a number of English language publications on the novel coronavirus CV-19 and thought it might be helpful if I shared some of the information here,

Covid-19 has been officially declared by the World Health Organisation as having reached pandemic proportions.

On 31st January 2020 Covid-19 had been detected in 10 countries, now less than two and a half weeks later its in 148 countries and it has, according to experts the potential to kill 150 million people worldwide.

The new phrase we have learnt in those two weeks is `social distancing’. That is humans need to stay away from each other to prevent droplet transfers into the respiratory system.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) initially recommended a metre distance, but now some researchers have documented instances of cross-infection between people in a closed space 4.5 metres apart.

So as authorities worldwide are banning mass crowd events, initially with numbers like 5,000, then 1,000 and now down to 250 and even 50 in many areas. 

Now across the world, all kinds of events from conferences and school closures are being closed, and restaurants and bars will be pressured towards closure.

Air travel tgo and from all of Europe is being stopped into some countries such as the US. 

From the US. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Director of the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious diseases has acknowledged the unavailability of Covid-19 testing in the USA means that the spread of the virus there has been uncontained, so it is expected that the number of cases will rise rapidly

Why has it come to this?

The major problem is that Cov.19 is generally symptomless for an infected human for five or so days, and twenty per cent of those would spread the live virus without showing any symptoms at all.

The virus can remain viable exist on metal and plastic surfaces, like door handles, desktops, card payment keypads for days and could be spread by droplet or from hands by nose, mouth or eye contact.  It has the potential to infect 70% of the population of the world.

While the official figures detailed on the John Hopkins website show a 3,6% mortally rate. US Centre for Disease control believes that a 1% mortality rate is likely in the longer term, that could kill 56 million people, hence the pandemic panic.

Covid 19 cases are exploding in Europe, in Italy up from 7k to 26k in the last  week., Spain from 385 to 10k in 10 days And similar patterns can be expected across the whole of Europe, the UK and the USA.

Recommended measures to prevent the disease include frequent hand washing, maintaining distance from other people and not touching one's face. The use of masks is recommended for those who suspect they have the virus and their caregivers but not for the general public. 

There is no vaccine or specific antiviral treatment for COVID-19; management involves treatment of symptoms, supportive care and experimental measures. Trials are currently underway with a number of drugs, some of these are for existing approved drugs. If they prove useful that may reduce long term mortality rates

Generally, it seems that 80% of sufferers are not requiring medical support, and varying numbers of the residual require hospitalisation and oxygen support. Hospitals just do not have the resources to treat everyone if the numbers spike rapidly.

Case fatality rates (%) by age is not happy reading for our older citizens, people with immunological disorders or cancer therapy. I am not going to address symptoms etc. I will leave that to the experts.

However, the containment strategy is now over, the aim is now to slow the spread of the disease, to flatten the curve. 

Here is a verified document that tracks the spread of Covid-19 and explains the strategy now being used by Government to 

https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-act-today-or-people-will-die-f4d3d9cd99ca

Within Spain, the first clusters were in Madrid and as numbers climbed large numbers of people were displaced from work and schools were stopped. At that time some thousands of Madrileños decided that going to their holiday homes on the Costa Calida would be a great idea.

The Murcian Government last Friday night brought in rules which have impacted on us all.

Mar Menor shutdown. Note this shutdown has been extended to the entire Province of Murcia and at 2pm Saturday was  declared for the whole of Spain

All residents and tourists in the Mar Menor area, including San Pedro del Pinatar, San Javier, Los Alcázares, La Unión, Cartagena, Águilas and Mazarrón are now required to self-isolate due to the arrival en masse of people from inland regions of Spain with high infection rates.

Freedom of movement has been cancelled, essential travel, work travel is allowed or to go to the supermarkets and pharmacies will remain open. Please only send one-person shopping, not the family. 

People will also be able to attend health centres and hospitals but will require an appointment.

People can walk their dogs, but apparently must stay within 50 metres of their homes. Only one person, its not a family stroll.

Murcia president Fernando López Miras said bars, restaurants, pubs, discos and leisure facilities are now closed for two weeks.

He warned that the police will be patrolling the streets to check that people stay at home.

In my opinion, it makes sense for you to carry a note indicating where you are going and why, if you are outside.

The Spanish Government has declared a National state  of emergency which will allow them to take control of all kinds of private resources to allow them to control the situation. That could include rationing. 

The BBC, Sky, CNN are all doing their best to present accurate information, be careful of Fake news online.

If you can’t buy hand sanitizer, wash your hands with soap and water. Perhaps save the sanitizer to use when you are out and about. Or use germicidal wipes.

If you read any errors in this article, please private message me with details and references and I will correct the document. I will do my best to update it every day.

Having just been out in Los Alcázares, the hardware stores were open, also some tobacconists and the petrol/diesel/butane garages. Lots of families going into the supermarkets, gosh is this a family outing? In Italy, sensibly only one person per family, as that reduces the density.  In the duty pharmacy, there was hand gel for you to apply before you went in, maximum of five in there at once, payment by card and all the staff wearing masks and gloves.

Be safe.

The link below is the highly regarded John Hopkins Covid-19 dashboard.

https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6

Just back from the duty pharmacy, in Los Alcázares, hand gel at the door, to use before you go in, limit of five clients allowed in at a time. Payment by card, staff wearing masks.

Drove past the supermarket belt, saw lots of families going in as a group, an outing?  In Italy, there is a strict limit of one person per family to reduce density. Tobacconists, hardware stores and garages (petrol,diesel,butane) open