Germany in a bit of trouble? https://news.sky.com/story/coronavi...nfections-grows-after-lockdown-eased-11980194
I think he is exhausted... Parroting the same sad platitudes and terrible numbers.. Which don't stack up anyway...
Will either of these change people’s perception of this and the previous government? I doubt it. There are supporters of Trump who think he’s doing a “great job”. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world...s_and_canada&link_location=live-reporting-map
To be absolutely fair on this Mark. The R factor can only be calculated on a weekly basis and any loosening to the restrictions only happened on monday which means that any resultant rise in new cases could not yet be measured. Reading into the statistics it appears that Germany is winning this battle - whilst they have a 'total cases' figure of 159,912 - this hides the fact that 120,400 of those are now registered as totally recovered. Taking deaths away from these figures it leaves just 33,198 active cases - this is a reduction from the peak of 72,865. Whilst there were 1,154 new cases yesterday there were also 2,900 new recoveries - as long as the daily new recoveries are higher than the daily new cases then they are on the way to beating this - and this has been the case since April 11th. I realize the fear about possibly giving up a winning position but this is difficult in Germany. The Robert Koch Institute are approaching this as a purely medical topic. For them the success is a direct result of the measures which have been taken and they want to keep going on the same road - the question of economic fallout, or the psychological costs of maintaining this lockdown are not their concern - the fact that such things as alcoholism and drug addiction may be on the rise, or that the health costs of an economic downturn may also need to come into the reckoning does not interest them much. Angela Merkel has the Robert Koch Institute speaking in one ear and the economists and the minister presidents of the states of Germany speaking in the other. The states of Germany have, traditionally, had a certain autonomy which has been threatened by this crisis and so there is a certain power struggle going on between central government, and regional, with Angela Merkel being wary of loosening of restrictions and some minister presidents of the states playing the popularity card.
The ACT government in Australia announced this morning that the Territory is now coronavirus-free. Interestingly, they are in no rush to ease the restrictions that were in place.
The retailers association have told MPs that 20% of High Street shops are unlikely to open again when the restrictions are lifted. They have said that this number could rise as the ones that do reopen might find it more expensive to comply with distancing regulations, and would then shut. Already we have seen the High Streets suffering at the hands of the out of town superstores, so it will be an ever larger blow to those that were trying to regenerate town centres.
The plan here is to give a one off voucher to the value of €250 to every citizen after this crisis - this can only be used in shops and businesses which are locally owned, and which have been closed during the lockdown. The idea is that this will give a kind of kick start to smaller High Street shops.
It sounds good cologne, but what happens when a small town only has one small supermarket that has stayed open? Would you have to travel to a larger town to buy non-food items that you might not actually need?
The Australian government did something similar back in 2009 after the global financial crisis of the previous year - only they gave every citizen a $900 cheque and just urged them to spend it in local businesses, which they did. I remember being miffed at missing out - there were people around the world who received it after only having been in the country for short stays years previously. One cheque even found its way to London only to find that the intended recipient had died.
Not into the latest mobile phone stuff as I have only moved a little from having my phone tethered to the wall, so privacy via phones is not high on my lists of things to investigate. However I do know enough to see that tracking of people with the virus can be helped with a phone app. Bit of a worry to see that security experts in such things are not happy with the government, and just how they will use the information. https://www.computing.co.uk/news/40...ess-concern-nhsx-covid-19-contact-tracing-app
"We have so far succeeded in the first and most important task we set ourselves as a nation To avoid the tragedy that engulfed other parts of the world" Johnson. Which other countries does he have in mind? USA and.......
History can be very revealing. This from BoJo's father in 2015 speaks volumes about Tory views on the pandemic - and goes a long way towards explaining the path BoJo took to deal with it. http://archive.is/D1WKz Especially this excerpt: ‘The Conservation Society believes that the quality of life is crucially dependent on the amount of land and the pressures upon it, that on this criterion Britain is already overcrowded and additional numbers can only diminish the quality of life.” For one so concerned about over-population, it's a pity he couldn't stop his own son from wandering around and indiscriminately impregnating women.
A head of procurement for the NHS has set up a business to profit from the private sale of huge quantities of personal protective equipment in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak, an undercover investigation by the Guardian can reveal. David Singleton, 42, a senior NHS official in London who has been working at the capital’s Covid-19 Nightingale hospital, launched the business two weeks ago to trade in visors, masks and gowns.
