This is the thread for discussion and collecting reference data, information, advice, and news regarding COVID-19/SARS-nCoV-2/"the coronavirus".
Coronaviruses and their names
Coronaviruses are a family of viruses known to cause acute respiratory diseases in their hosts. So far there have been seven major species of coronaviruses known to infect humans.
*
HCoV-229E,
HCoV-NL63,
HCoV-HKU1, and
HCoV-OC43 cause common colds. These species have specifically evolved with humans as their primary hosts. They are continually circulating in the population, with some living within you a good portion of the time (possibly even right now!) and attacking when your immune system is weakened.
*
SARS-CoV causes a much more virulent and dangerous disease called
severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), which broke out in an epidemic in 2002–2003 (8098 confirmed cases across 17 countries, 774 dead as of 2005). In that case, the virus presumably jumped to humans from bats (and/or palm civets as an intermediate reservoire), although the particular mechanism wasn't identified. Outside of the singular cases reported in 2004, the virus never reemerged in humans again since then but is presumed to still exist in the wild.
*
MERS-CoV is the deadliest of the bunch at around 1/3 mortality rate, and
thankfully not remotely as virulent as some others. It has caused several localized outbreaks of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), also known as camel flu, since 2012 (2506 confirmed cases across 26 countries, 862 dead). Most of those have been concentrated in the geographical area around the Middle East and spread to humans from camels. South Korea was unlucky to import the disease in 2015 and borne the highest death toll outside of the Middle East countries. The virus is still active in the wild, and isolated cases are reported every year.
*
SARS-CoV-2 is the cause behind the current pandemic of the disease called
COVID-19 (short for "
corona
virus
disease 20
19") originating in Wuhan, China. Its virulence is similar to that of SARS-CoV, and it's once again presumed to have transmitted to humans from bats (and/or pangolins as an intermediate reservoire). This will be the virus and its associated disease discussed in the thread from this point onwards.
The currently known data about the virus and its mechanism of spreading
Global statistical data
The foremost authorities on the global statistics of the spread is the World Health Organisation, the inter-governmental health agency of the United Nations, which publishes
daily situation reports on the COVID-19 pandemic, and the
European Center for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC). Always check their sites for important information and advice. If it conflicts with your local health agency's information in any way, I suggest trusting the international data.
Some of the trusted data aggregators used to track the development of the pandemic are the
Center for Systems Science and Engineering at John Hopkins University and University of Oxford's
Our World in Data. The data below comes from those two sources and will be updated upon reaching major milestones.
COVID-19 statistics for 2020-03-24
* Over 400,000 cases are confirmed with over 18,000 fatalities total.
* It took over three months to reach the first 100,000, only 12 days to double to 200,000, and a further 5 days to double again. The death toll doubled in the last 6 days. The epidemic demonstrates exponential growth in most affected countries, but there are signs of linearizing thanks to the widespread lockdowns being implemented.
* Italy can currently be considered the most affected country, with almost 70,000 confirmed cases and over 6800 deaths, still rising at a sharp rate due to hospitals being overwhelmed and the medical staff gradually falling sick themselves.
* China still holds the largest number of confirmed cases at over 80,000 but fatalities have plateaued at around 3200: the spread has slowed down
dramatically thanks to strict and efficient containment measures. The death toll took 38 days to double and its rate is currently on the decline. United Arab Emirates and South Korea followed suit by beating all records on per-capita testing and tracing contacts of the confirmed cases on early stages of infection.
* The countries who went over 10,000 confirmed cases include China, Italy, Spain, Germany, Iran, France, and the United States.
* The most affected countries by fatalities relative to the size of population are Italy (over 100 death per million), Spain (over 45), Iran (over 20), France, and the Netherlands (both over 10).
* Over 100,000 people with previously-confirmed cases have made a full recovery.
Note:
confirmed cases are not
total cases; they are the numbers presented by the countries in question, which mainly depend on the number of tests conducted (not every person is tested), and may also be under-reported for political reasons. During an active epidemic, the number of infected is
always significantly larger than the number of tested individuals, as the infection spreads much faster and is not apparent until several days after the fact. Countries that haven't implemented proper large-scale testing protocols are (severely) under-representing the spread.
In early March WHO estimated the mortality rate at 3.4%, but it is hypothesized that the actual overall mortality rate is closer to 1–1.4% owing to a large volume of asymptomatic, under-reported, and/or misdiagnosed cases (sources:
1,
2). South Korea was the first country to deploy aggressive statewide testing, and as of 2020-03-20, they stood at 316,614 individuals tested, 8652 confirmed cases, and 100 fatalities total (1.16%), which is very reassuring and a great example of swift and effective government action. With that being said, if the virus infects 20% of the world's population, that still puts some 15–20 million people at risk of death if left without immediate treatment.
Symptoms
The most common are fever, dry cough, fatigue, and sputum production.
Take note that most of these are shared with many other respiratory infections. Here's how the list compares to other common conditions that may be confused with COVID-19:
A major identifying factor is shortness of breath (
dyspnea, common characteristic of lung infections) in the
absence of runny nose (
rhinorrhea, common characteristic of upper respiratory tract infections and allergies). If you are short of breath, consider contacting your doctor or an epidemic hotline immediately.
Risk groups
* People over 60
* People with chronic respiratory diseases (e.g. asthma)
* People with other serious underlying medical conditions, such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes
*
Potentially, smokers
*
Potentially, immunosuppressed patients (but
there is ongoing research on deliberately using immunosuppression to combat a certain severe symptom)
In short, if your immune system is compromised, the sickness is likely to develop faster and/or in a more severe form once it's contracted.
Spreading
* The virus spreads via microscopic liquid droplets that are dispersed in the air when you're coughing or sneezing, or smeared over surfaces by hand. These droplets can stick to surfaces and hang in the air for over an hour depending on environmental conditions. Notably, cardboard can hold the virus up to 24 hours, plastic and stainless steel for 2–3 days (sources:
1,
2).
* Technically, the disease becomes contagious
before the host starts exhibiting apparent symptoms, but the main mode of transmission is still via the respiratory symptoms and the associated liquids. The probability of infection upon exposure also depends on the viral load in dispersed liquid. The data on asymptomatic spread is inconclusive at this point.
* The virus does
not spread via other body liquids and excretions (e.g. blood, urine, sperm, etc.).
* The virus does not seem to infect or be spread via domestic animals (
source).
* Generalized data suggests a high sensitivity to temperature amd UV spectrum radiation, including direct sunlight (
source).
* The virus
does infect children, albeit over half of them only develop mild symptoms or none at all (
source). Considering their generally lax understanding of sanitary norms, it is very important to monitor their interactions with elderly family members and other people belonging to a risk group.
Period of infectiousness
* The median incubation period is estimated to be between 4–5 days (sources:
1,
2), with a range as wide as 2 to 14 days possible depending on the
viral load and other factors. 97.5% of infected are said to manifest symptoms within 11.5 days.
* Median time from onset to clinical recovery for mild cases is approximately 2 weeks; for patients with severe or critical disease it is 3–6 weeks (
source).
* The time period from onset to the development of severe disease, at which point the patient needs to be admitted to an ICU, is 7–10 days (sources:
1,
2,
3). Among patients who have died, the time from symptom onset to the outcome ranges from 2 to 8 weeks (anecdotal evidence suggests people with compromised immune systems die quicker).
* Traces of the virus can persist in the organism for two weeks after the symptoms have vanished (
source). Singular cases have been identified where the virus persisted for up to 37 days total (
source). In other words, even after you have recovered,
you are not fully safe for the others just yet.
Testing
* Tests are conducted by taking throat or nose swabs or collecting sputum samples and checking them for the virus RNA. The results are available within one to several days depending on how quickly the samples are transported and the size of test and report backlog.
* This type of test
isn't 100% accurate because it depends on the availability of the virus-carrying material and the viral load in it, staff experience, and the time lag between testing and reporting. It will also not identify people who have
already recovered from the virus and may not longer be at an immediate risk of infection.
* Blood and urine
do not yield the virus. Stool samples aren't reliable, either. If you are offered a test based on those, it
will not give you any conclusive results on SARS-CoV-2 presence.
* Blood tests can, however, show antibodies for the virus at a later stage of the infection or after the recovery. The upsides to this method is that it's simple, quick, and can be done at home using a specifically developed test kit. The downside is it's
highly prone to false negatives because the antibodies don't manifest until the later stages of the infection (generally when the immune system has already taken the upper hand).
* The turnaround time is largely a question of logistics and the availability of personnel and the necessary facilities. Faster tests may be coming, but the actual testing time is not necessarily the biggest contributor to the overall turnaround time.
Misc. findings
* Investigations are still ongoing with regards to the
risk of co-infection with other viruses among the COVID-19 patients.
* There have been
multiple reports about once-recovered patients that were tested positive again. The data on this is inconclusive and may involve faulty testing methodology or relapse after an incomplete treatment (see above on the time periods during which the virus may be active). A
new study suggests rhesus macaques don't get reinfected by SARS-CoV-2, but it hasn't yet been peer-reviewed. More data is needed.
* Many genetic differences have been found in the isolated virus specimen, which have been grouped into two types (sources:
1,
2). There is an
ongoing debate as to whether these constitute distinct strains, or whether any of the two were a recent mutation. There is no conclusive data on the virus's potential for mutation, but it's been suggested that an eventual mutation is to be expected.
* Investigations are
being proposed to see if it's feasible to pre-infect people with a relatively harmless competing virus that would inhibit SARS-CoV-2's growth or at all prevent it from causing a disease.
Preventive measures
Hand and mouth hygiene is the first and foremost preventive measure. Most are common sense and are recommended regardless of the ongoing pandemic.
* Soap, other detergents, bleach, typical window cleaners, and rubbing alcohol inactivate the virus. Any alcohol will do, even in lower concentrations (
as low as 30% was confirmed to work).
* Wash hands as frequently and as thoroughly as feasible.
* Don't share cups, bathwater, cigarettes, etc. with people you aren't already intimate with.
* Avoid unnecessary direct contact between your skin and surfaces of common public use (railings, doorknobs...). If you must touch one, don't touch your face afterwards until you have washed your hands. Using knuckles to press buttons or push doors is a good idea to limit exposure.
* Keep track of easily-contaminated surfaces in your home (handles, doorknobs, remote controls, switches, tablecloth...) and sanitize them regularly.
* Change towels (especially hand towels) and bedsheets regularly.
* Cough and sneeze in your elbow or a paper tissue (dispose of it immediately afterwards).
* Don't sneeze or blow your nose in cloth napkins. Use disposable tissues instead and discard them immediately.
Social distancing
* Refrain from kissing people whose mental well-being doesn't depend on it.
* Refrain from any physical contact with the elderly as much as possible.
* Maintain a safe distance of at least 1 meter (ideally 2) from people not wearing masks, if it's feasible. You never know who is contagious; could be them, could be you.
*
Don't confuse social distancing with emotional distancing. The feeling of isolation exacerbates depression and other potential mental issues. Communicate regularly and check up on people you haven't heard from in a while.
Respiratory masks help contain the water droplets carrying the virus from your nose and mouth and limit their range when you sneeze, cough, or deeply exhale. They are mainly needed to
protect others from yourself rather than yourself from the others.
* The use of masks is
not recommended unless you expect to make close contact with infected people or suspect being infected yourself.
* If you are infected and absolutely have to leave home (to get food or to visit a medical facility),
do wear a mask at any time contact with other people is expected to avoid spreading the infection. For this reason, keeping a small supply of 5–10 masks at hand might be a good idea.
* But
don't hoard masks.
* If you have to wear one, any disposable surgical mask will do. The more specialized respirators (N95-class)
don't offer significantly higher protection against respiratory infections compared to regular disposable surgical masks.
Quarantines and lockdowns are enacted in the most severely affected countries. Going by China's example, this is a very effective measure, especially if enacted early on and if confirmed cases are studied to expose infection chains. Different countries' ability to enforce it and attend to needs of the quarantined varies depending on the strictness of their government and the strength of their economy. Most countries are
not like China in this respect. Do not expect similar levels of containment efficiency relative to the population density. Nevertheless, they are necessary until treatment is sufficiently available.
What to do if you get sick
*
Don't panic. :)
* Call the epidemic hotline provided by your state health agency or the local center for disease control and follow their instructions.
* Notify your workplace/school/etc. Don't go there if possible, and start practicing strict social distancing immediately if you haven't before.
* If you live alone, notify your closest relatives or friends who are able to tend to you and don't belong to any of the risk groups. Ask them to bring you an essential supply of daily necessities (food, prescripted medicine, sanitary stuff, etc.) for the next few days. Don't be shy to trouble them.
* If you live with a pet, arrange for somebody trustworthy
in advance to look after it if you have to be hospitalized or become bedridden. If you provide the person with spare keys, inform your relatives/friends you've notified earlier.
In the absence of exact instructions, follow the usual respiratory disease regimen:
* Get a lot of rest, don't strain the body and mind unnecessarily.
* Keep the room ventilated.
* Eat easily-digested and nutrient-rich food (common choices include porridge, yogurt, boiled and/or pureéd vegetables, omelette, chicken broth, etc.), dial back on all spices.
* Keep everything you ingest close to body temperature: the fewer body resources are spent adjusting it, the more can be spent on fighting the disease.
* Same applies to shower temperature. If you have a high fever or find it difficult to move around, wipe yourself with a wet towel instead.
* Keep your phone, drinking water, medicine, and sanitary tissues close at hand.
*
Mild fever is your friend; avoid reducing it unless it exceeds 39°C/102°F.
* Keep track of the symptoms, write any notable changes down in a notepad (this way your doctor or attendant can have easy access to your notes if your condition worsens).
Forecasts
* A popular number quoted around puts the estimate of people infected worldwide in the course of the epidemic at 40–70%. They all seem to trace back to
Harvard epidemiologist Marc Lipsitch, and in that interview he specifically said it was 40–70%
of adults. He later revised it to
20–60% of adults, which roughly translates to 1–3 billion people over 16.
* There are no conclusive forecasts on the timeline of concurrent infection and mortality, but separate quotes can be seen estimating the peak between late spring and mid-summer (sources:
1,
2). Take these with a grain of salt; they are likely to be revised in the near future.
* It is reasonable to expect that many more countries, especially those with high population density, will issue lockdowns and bans on social gatherings in the coming weeks.
* It is not yet known whether seasonal weather changes will affect the spread dynamics in any way, but based on the temperature ranges across all affected countries, there is no apparent indication that it affects anything at all.
What makes COVID-19 different from some other dangerous and/or widespread diseases
It's both
violently contagious—it spreads very quickly and very easily without requiring direct physical contact—and at the same time it has a
protracted incubation time to ensure the infected person carries it around unknowingly and can spread it further before falling sick—which is how it got imported from China all over the world. It is a very insidious disease.
To put the numbers in perspective, in comparison with seasonal flu—the most regular and widespread epidemic disease—the infection rate is over 1.5 times higher (an average person spreads COVID-19 to 2–2.5 other people as opposed to ~1.3 other people in case with flu), has about an order of magnitude higher hospitalization rate, and the mortality is at least an order of magnitude higher as well. We also have flu vaccines available, and the development time for novel flu strain vaccines is also relatively quick because they are much better understood and easier to manage.
In this respect, it's not just the relatively high mortality that makes it so dangerous, but the fact that it has the potential to
spread so quickly and under the radar. Additionally, the mortality rate will naturally spike as soon as medical services become overwhelmed and the infected people are left without necessary treatment.
The last disease of such speed and magnitude of spreading was the Spanish flu of 1918–1920 which infected about a quarter and killed ~1/10 of the world's population at the time. In terms of the overall danger, the main difference between now and then is that we have better access to hygiene, medical facilities, information networks, and international cooperation compared to a hundred years ago when most countries were already busy with WW1. Medical facilities remain the weakest element, however, as their availability is limited compared to the potential number of the infected.
What is this about "flattening the curve"?
You may have seen this animation:
It generally explains the idea, but omits one important detail: the healthcare system capacity line isn't actually there in the
middle—it's closer to the
bottom.
As mentioned earlier, medical facilities are very limited compared to the number of potentially infected. Most developed countries are only able to provide intensive care to
0.005–0.05% of their population at a time—and those have to be shared with causes other than the new virus which don't really go anywhere. If a country doesn't curb the spread very early on (so far only South Korea had managed to linearize the mortality rate before the number of confirmed cases exceeded five digits), even doubling its number of unoccupied critical care beds may still not be enough despite the lockdowns.
You can think of it this way: in theory, if you lived in a developed country, didn't belong to any risk groups, and had some form of health insurance, contracting a disease like COVID-19 would not inherently be life-threatening even if you happened upon its more severe form.
But if you catch it at the same time with 10,000 other people, you can end up in a situation where nobody will be available to provide the help you need. In this respect, if you haven't contracted the disease yet, the closer you come to the peak, the more dangerous it is to get infected.
It is also important to understand that saturation of medical facilities is very likely unavoidable even with total lockdowns
unless treatments come soon enough. The London Imperial College COVID-19 Response Team recently
published a modeling study on Great Britain and the United States containing this graph:
The red line at the bottom is the critical care bed capacity and the blue line is their best case projection of their occupancy. They haven't identified scenarios where it would be possible to avoid massive oversaturation. This is generally the case for most other countries as well. Does this discredit the flattening concept? Quite the opposite: it demonstrates that most countries are already behind the schedule on flattening their curve. They still need to do it, but it won't become as comfortably flat as the animation may suggest.
What's with the abnormally high (>10%) closed case fatality rate?
You may have noticed that several countries experience an unexpectedly high closed case fatality rate (CCFR, deaths divided by a sum of confirmed recoveries and deaths), e.g. 45% in Italy as of 2020-03-24:
Some interpret it as the true fatality rate of the disease itself, e.g. what's the percentage of people that die even if treated, and start panicking. This is misguided for two reasons.
1. All or almost all deaths are reported to national health agencies daily because almost all of them happen at the hospitals. On the other hand, only hospital discharges are reported daily. Cases of mild condition patient recovery have a significant lag because the vast majority of them aren't being actively monitored, and they probably won't be until they come to report their condition themselves.
2. Fatalities naturally spike when the number of patients in serious and critical conditions exceeds the number of intensive care beds, which is what's happening in Italy and some other countries right now. They simply cannot be provided with the help that would've kept them alive otherwise.
3. The denominator doesn't include any undetected (e.g. misdiagnosed or asymptomatic) cases which constitute a significant portion of total cases.
We only know as many cases as we test, so the smaller the percentage of tested population, the more the error.
In order to illustrate how this affects mortality statistics, let's take a country with a known high percentage of tested population: South Korea (stood at 6,148 tests per million people, or 0.61% of their total population, as of 2020-03-20), so that we can be sure there aren't as many underreported cases:
There you go: 3%, in line with the WHO predictions. And if they had tested not <1% but ~100% people, it would've dropped even lower, as discussed above.
Note that this isn't because Korea has better medical facilities than Italy, or better tests, or anything else like that. It's because they reacted earlier, tested more people, and generally put themselves in complete control over the situation, so their CCFR is more representative of the disease's true FR.
The situation with treatments and vaccines
Vaccines
Multiple teams around the world are working on prospective vaccines, including China, the US, Russia, and several European countries. All antiviral vaccines are based on inactivated viruses, viruses with similar genetic code, or parts of the relevant genetic material to provoke an immune response and hence pre-condition the immune system for rapid response to a real virus. An inoculated person will not be significantly affected by the disease; their immune system will deal with it before it becomes dangerous.
All vaccines go through a
series of trials intended to determine their efficacy, proper dosages, and possible adverse effects. These last for many months, typically over a year, before they are approved for use.
US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Director
Anthony Fauci and UK Chief Scientific Adviser
Patrick Vallance, both very competent people, predict at least a year before a proven vaccine is attained. It is not impossible that meaningful results are produced earlier, but it is highly unlikely and you should not count on that.
Additionally, if the virus mutates significantly, the antibodies created by a vaccine may become incompatible with the new strain, and will require a new vaccine. This is currently the case with seasonal flu, which mutates regularly and prevent old vaccines from working. If the same happens to this virus, of if the antibody count wanes significantly over time, it may require regular re-vaccination and/or re-development of the vaccine.
Treatment
Treatment will not make a person immune per se, but will help the immune system fight against the infection, at which point, if successful, the organism may acquire at least a partial immunity of its own. Until this happens, you will have to live through the disease, but before that it would be a good idea to avoid being infected in the first place.
Unlike vaccines, treatments
can bypass parts of clinical trials if they are used as a last resort in a critical case with no better options available. This will likely be invoked in the upcoming months, which hopefully will accelerate the treatments' adoption for patients in less-severe conditions.
There are multiple prospective treatments being investigated:
*
Remdesivir
*
Mesenchymal stem cells
*
Hydroxycholoroquine + azithromicyn
*
Convalescent blood serum
*
Camostat
*
Favipiravir
Note: Do not take any of these without an appropriate medical guidance!
See also
*
An updated guide to the coronavirus drugs and vaccines in development
*
Research and Development on Therapeutic Agents and Vaccines for COVID-19 and Related Human Coronavirus Diseases
Economic impact
Several affected countries have enacted limits on long-range transportation and public gatherings. So far, the
hospitality industry (travel agencies, hotels, tourist attractions, and restaurants) has been the most affected by the restrictions; governments are looking into bailout options for the affected businesses.
To do: update this section with more research and links to expert commentary.
I follow the health agencies' guidance. How else can I help?
Volunteering
Several governments have launched volunteering campaigns (such as
this one in the UK). Be on the lookout for calls from your municipality and/or register in the local volunteer center if you have one.
There are reports from all over the world about people who have engaged in individual initiatives, such as buying groceries and other encessities for their sick or elderly neighbors. This is more risky but may be worth a shot if you can secure an ample supply of basic protective equipment (disposable masks, gloves, and sanitizer). If you decide to do this,
absolutely ensure that you minimize the risk of both contracting the disease and spreading it further to the vulnerable people you are trying to help.
Folding@Home
Stanford University's popular cloud computing platform, currently based in St. Louis School of Medicine, has recently launched a
number of coronavirus-related projects that can help find potential mutation vectors and treatment mechanisms, and subsequently met
a surge of new contributors, which you can join at any time. It is also a great alternative to a room heater if you feel cold and/or would like to simulate some of that beach experience you've been denied due to the lockdown. :)
Folding is a highly computationally-intensive task, so old/weak desktop computers and most laptops may not receive high-priority work units which demand urgency. A good baseline for efficient folding is a modern gaming-grade graphics card (think GeForce GTX 1060 or better) and/or a 12+ thread CPU (Ryzen 5 1600 or better). Good case ventilation is
highly recommended to reduce fan noise and temperature-related strain on PC components. Folding in a poorly-ventilated case may damage your system!
* Go to the
official site and pick the download that suits your system.
* Install the client, preferably with the screensaver option checked.
* If you want to fold as part of the
TASVideos team (which I have just recently set up), choose "Set up an identity" and input
251131 as the team ID. This is purely optional and doesn't affect anything in particular, but may grow your e-peen.
* Configure the power budget and set the target research to "any disease" (in most cases you will be assigned a coronavirus-related folding task).
* If you are unsure whether your PC's ventilation system can handle the heat, keep the power slider on Medium or below. If you want the process to be as unintrusive as possible, put it on Light, enable the screensaver, and let the PC run overnight when the electricity is cheap.
* Sometimes one or more of your folding slots may get stuck at "downloading". This is a server-side issue due to the work unit distribution servers
being overrun by requests (this is technically a good thing) and being unable to generate tasks in time. This can sometimes be fixed by restarting the application and letting it choose another WU server, or just waiting for 10–20 minutes or so. You can also
donate to them directly to help get the needed server capacity up.
* The
web UI sometimes glitches out if you restart the application. You can still control everything via the application's own UI (if you're on Windows, it should be in your tray).
Timeline of major events
2019-11-17: First case detected (but not recognized until later).
2019-12-30: China notifies WHO of the outbreak in Wuhan.
2020-01-08: Discovery of the new virus publicly announced, genome sequences published.
2020-01-13: First case outside China.
2020-01-23: Wuhan and other Hubei prefectures go on lockdown.
2020-02-11: Total deaths exceeds 1000. The disease is named COVID-19.
2020-03-07: Total confirmed cases exceed 100,000.
2020-03-09: Italy goes on lockdown.
2020-03-11: WHO declares COVID-19 a pandemic.
2020-03-12: Denmark and Ireland go on lockdown.
2020-03-15: Spain goes on lockdown. Austrian province of Tyrol goes on lockdown.
2020-03-16: Czechia goes on lockdown. Malaysia goes on partial lockdown. Philippine area of Luzon goes on lockdown.
2020-03-17: France goes on lockdown.
2020-03-18: Belgium goes on lockdown.
2020-03-19: California is the first American state to go on lockdown.
2020-03-20: Confirmed cases exceed 200,000, fatalities exceed 10,000 total and 1,000 per day. Argentina goes on lockdown. Italy overtakes China by total death count.
2020-03-22: Confirmed cases exceed 300,000.
2020-03-23: Recovered patients exceed 100,000. UK, New Zealand, and the Netherlands go on lockdown.
2020-03-24: Confirmed cases exceed 400,000.
Useful links
* JHU pandemic tracker:
https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6 (
mobile-friendly version)
* Our World in Data statistics:
https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus
* Worldometer tracker:
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
* World Health Organisation COVID-19 portal:
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019
* European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control:
https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en
* US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:
https://www.cdc.gov
* Graphic tool for understanding how containment measures affect infection spread:
https://art-bd.shinyapps.io/nCov_control/
Share your experience with the pandemic and any interesting news regarding COVID-19 development and link your sources—I will add everything important to the post. Scientific articles posted on specialized archives are preferred to general media outlets.
(EDIT 2020-03-24: Added sections on helping and CCFR, updated statistics, added some more links and cleaned up a few paragraphs.)
