You were always more expressive & poetic than me!

Only the city, surrounding districts were released on the 14th March, deemed and low to medium risk.

Yeh but that table also includes Romania, Albania, Serbia e.c.t.

Countries that are much poorer than we are.

Compare it to those with comparable levels of affluence and the UK is hanging around at the bottom along with the US.

yeah and the new infections are probably in the city?

China is becoming more and more confident that it has this under full control.

Does anyone think the government should do there briefings in the morning rather than late afternoon. This would prevent all these roamers starting. The government could set a clear narrative from the off. 

Exactly.  As has been said already there are no easy answers.  Once the virus is in the environment it will just keep infecting people until enough people are immune to slow and eventually stop it.  The Spanish Flu was pretty much the same.

That's why the government's initial policy (still the policy?) of herd immunity might have to be the way, despite the horrendous implications.  Until there's a vaccine that can be given to several billion people this is just going to rumble on.

All because of a bl***y illegal trade in wild animals in some wretched market in a city few had heard of and China's culture of hushing things up.  I'm livid that the Chinese propaganda machine is now trying to obfuscate to avoid the blame; it's a f'ing disgrace.   They ought to be held to account and made to help pay for the damage they've done.

Could be a promising prophylactic, but articles like that always need to be read with a health warning - from the article itself:

"These new clinical trials "will be carried out with a team independent 
of Professor Raoult," said Ms. Ndiaye after a cabinet meeting", 
noting that at this stage "we have no scientific evidence" that this treatment works.

The Mrs called me from Orrisons; no fresh meat on the shelves at all. This after a similar picture in Aldi. Thnkfully, the butcher had meat that was yet to be cut up, and cut 8 pork steaks for our tea.

Morrisons also had no bread loaves, either, hardly any tinned veg, no tinned meat, fish or ready meals. Didn't check on toilet rolls, because we're OK for now.

I've got a lot of meat in the freezer, but it's mostly either good steak, or cuts that need casseroling so I'll have to get cooking and freezing to give us quick/easy meals.

White House very worried about data from Italy and France about how the virus is hitting young people hard. 

Edit: Also referencing "undiagnosed underlying conditions" as a potential problem in all age groups - I think someone here flagged it up as a possible concern

32 more people have died 

I obviously disagree with this and the govt is now moving away from that strategy. Having new infections in Wuhan is absolutely normal, China has contained the epidemic and it will now start quaranting foreign visitors. They are even restarting their football matches (with fans).

That was not supposed to happen. Very worried about daughter in London - I phoned her this afternoon and begged her to get on the first train home  - she already has the tools to work from home.

I agree this is how China will operate, question is how long can they do it for? Will need to be done until there is a vaccine, otherwise the endgame would be rest of world immune and China vulnerable to a massive health crisis (if rest of world did not contain also)

Not certain, but you should be psychologically ready for hundreds of deaths daily by the end of March.

Re read my post. I said you scale it back and withdraw it from the economy as things recover. And it won’t be £330bn. It will be in excess of £1 trillion and money will be paid directly into the bank account of every adult in the country.

Without this, the country will literally collapse.

Nobody in the world is worried about inflation and won’t be for some time to come.

That increases in deaths is a serious concern now. With the lag and the fact we had our highest number of cases suggests we are heading for a devastating period.

10 Downing St. some time in April

I really hope China pays the price for this, to be honest. I hope it sees their tourism industry and their exports seriously decline as people turn away from them. I work for the post and there's been a serious decline in the amount of Chinese mail coming through (mainly because of the lockdowns still in force at the moment) but I would love for it to remain the case.

They've inflicted this pandemic on the world through the illegal animals market and they have the arrogance to sit there and act like they've done nothing wrong (even going as far as patting themselves on the back in some instances). Yes, the European governments have been utterly incompetent and really failed in the early stages to contain it, but still it's no excuse.

Agreed, that death toll has sent a shiver down my spine. This mishandling is coming home to roost.

Yes, unfortunately this is correct and it would be (wonderfully) surprising if it were not.

I think theirs and other Asian countries' strategy is probably the correct one. Contain it (including subsequent waves) until the vaccine is found. Europe has messed up, but at least they are now trying to contain it using the desperate lockdowns. 

You just cannot let this thing let rip, it will destroy society. 

The mishandling has been Europe wide - the outbreak in China was not taken seriously enough at the outset - Italy closed its borders to China, but being part of Schengen made that unworkable. Once Italy broke out, the neighbouring countries should have immediately closed their borders, but they did not, all European countries should have suspended flights to Northern Italy and advised their people against any travel to Italy and again when Spain, France and Germany started to go down the toilet, our Foreign Office should have advised against any non-essential travel well over a week ago.

But none of that happened! People in every western European country have been let down by their political elites, because they did not take this seriously enough at the outset and bin open borders!

If the black market is allowed to take off we will!

Absolutely, Peter- very well said.

The Chinese government should be made to pay through the nose for this. Whether that be years of economic sanctions or something else, I don't know, but they absolutely need to be held accountable in some way for this disastrous episode.

My eldest is a newly qualified nurse in Brighton - her ward is one of three being refitted specially for COVID cases. You couldn’t drag her away with a tractor at the moment - really worried but very proud at the same time.

In most cases though included your daughter I’d suggest if you can get out of London and work from home I’d do it now. It’s really not going to be a nice place to be before long.